Dana Gioria Money Poem
Dana Gioia was once a business executive before become a writer, poet, and critic. He is much recognize, acclaimed, and awarded. President George W. Bush named him Chairman of the National Endowment for Arts in 2003. Money is a poem that is included in Dana Gioia’s book”The God’s of Winter.” This poem talks about something that everyone is very familiar with in their own way, money. No matter who you are, you know what money is and what money can do or cannot do for you. Dana Gioia illustrates in continuous metaphors that money can be earned, saved, shared, wasted, abused, and used, and that spending money is the prime objective of mankind. Dana Gioia starts off with a quote from Wallace Stevens that reads
Money is a kind of poetry.
Then starts his poem,
Money, the long green, cash, stash, rhino, jack or just plain dough.
Chock it up, fork it over, shell it out. Watch it burn holes through pockets.
To be made of it! To have it to burn! Greenbacks, double eagles, megabucks and Ginnie Maes, makes both ends meet.
Money breeds money.
Gathering interest, compounding daily.
Always in circulation.
Money. You don’t know where it’s been, but you put it where your mouth is.
And it talks.
The first line of Money can be interpreted many different ways. First off, money is such a broad subject and could be a type of poem itself. In his poem Dana Gioia uses a series of clichés and metaphors that are part of American slang such as in the first stanza he says money is dough in reference to its ability to expand further such as when you save money and you can physically expand dough with your hands and in the sense that money can satisfy your need such as dough can when you cook it and eat it. There is an array of slang inference to its presence as a stash, or, function and effect as a jack or rhino. The next stanza explains how chocking up and forking over money is the prime objective of mankind, giving money in exchange for something that
Money is a kind of poetry.
Then starts his poem,
Money, the long green, cash, stash, rhino, jack or just plain dough.
Chock it up, fork it over, shell it out. Watch it burn holes through pockets.
To be made of it! To have it to burn! Greenbacks, double eagles, megabucks and Ginnie Maes, makes both ends meet.
Money breeds money.
Gathering interest, compounding daily.
Always in circulation.
Money. You don’t know where it’s been, but you put it where your mouth is.
And it talks.
The first line of Money can be interpreted many different ways. First off, money is such a broad subject and could be a type of poem itself. In his poem Dana Gioia uses a series of clichés and metaphors that are part of American slang such as in the first stanza he says money is dough in reference to its ability to expand further such as when you save money and you can physically expand dough with your hands and in the sense that money can satisfy your need such as dough can when you cook it and eat it. There is an array of slang inference to its presence as a stash, or, function and effect as a jack or rhino. The next stanza explains how chocking up and forking over money is the prime objective of mankind, giving money in exchange for something that