Philip Levine What Work Is

What Family Is In his poem “What Work Is,” Philip Levine describes the kinship between members of the working class by illustrating the speaker’s relationship with his own brother. The bond the speaker has with his brother translates to a sense of understanding towards other people who work long, hard hours in order to achieve their dreams. While he stands in line, the speaker thinks he sees his brother, but upon clearing the rain from his glasses, he realizes that “it’s someone else’s brother, / narrower across the shoulders than / [his] but with the same sad slouch” (1). This clearly describes the burden that manual laborers share by illustrating the toll that it takes on people. Still, they maintain passion and dignity through the fatigue