Title: Day-Long Day Abstract: This paper is a critical analysis of Tino Villanuevas poem, Day-Long Day. It examines the work with regard to its diction, syntax, denotation and connotation, imagery, metaphor and simile, tone, rhyme and meter, allusion, and theme. (8.5 pages; 5 May 2000).Day-Long DayIIntroductionTino Villanuevas Day-Long Day is a remarkable work, for it captures in 34 short lines the anger, frustration, and cruelty of the life of Mexican migrant workers in Texas. The searing heat, the backbreaking and painful work of picking cottonall of it is here in vivid detail.IIDictionDiction refers to the choice of words an author uses that distinguishes his voice from everyone elses. That is, if you pick up a book by Charles Dickens, you dont have to read very far before you know without looking who the author ishe has a unique style. Much of that style depends on diction, which are the words a writer chooses to use and the way he constructs sentences. In Villanuevas case, he uses many Spanish phrases, so that we know he is a Spanish-speaker. He also uses sophisticated language and striking constructions, so that we know he is educated, even though he is a field hand:Daydreams border on sun-fed hallucinations,eyes and hands automatically discriminateWhiteness of cotton from field of vision.His choice of the word discriminate rather than choose, as well as the phrase field of vision, indicate a high degree of intelligence. Whether this is the intelligence of the poet or the field hand is immaterial at this point, for Villanueva has described the scene so vividly that we believe he is one with the other workers. The impact of the poem is not lessened if we find that he is not.IIISyntaxSyntax is the way in which words are arranged to form sentences. Construction is another good indication of intelligence, for it can be used to enhance the meaning of words. In the lines above, Villanueva might have said hands and eyes au...
