Liheng Zhang (Vic)
100 D/E
Spring 2013
02/21/2013
Respond for ‘To be of use’ “To be of use” is a really wonderful poem which is written by Marge Piercy. From her words, I can easily get what is her thought about the work of the world. Even there are many different kinds of jobs; each position has its own duty. The key word for every work is contribution, responsibility, cooperation, and concentration. In my opinion, the first paragraph of poem is focus on people who work ahead, try their best to contribute in their work place, and take charge of every single work. Furthermore, she gives those people highest honor. She desires of those commendable qualities, like reward to the society, being appreciate. I think polices are really fit these characters in our daily life. When there is an emergency happened, the police always emerge at the first time; no matter how worse the situations are, and how dangerous the accidents are. Then, in the second paragraph, Piercy mentioned that she prefers people who work like as an ox, always are responsible for their jobs, and would never forget their duty. Teachers are acted like these. They always patient to their students, and never give up to keep teach them. In my memory, my primary school’s teacher is the most responsible person in my whole life. I still remember that she taught us mandarin again and again, helped us to revise our easies many times, and communicated with our parents about our problems. In the third part of poem, she makes reference to cooperation. Cooperation is important to every job, every place, and every position. We cannot live without others, especially when you have significant assignment. One person only has one idea, but if you ask for someone else, there would be more and more good advises, and you collect them together, your final conclusion would become much stronger than the one only include yourself idea. Also, people live and work together can learn new knowledge and receive fresh information to each other, such like international students can learn from natives about different cultures and language. For the last paragraph, I really interested in this sentence: “The work of the world is common as mud.” In my mind, I think that the work of the world disperses to everyone, just like Piercy said, it is common. But I am not totally agree with that is common as mud. I think every job has its own place to live; no one else can instead of it. “Greek amphoras for wine or oil, Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums, but you know they were made to be used. The pitcher cries for water to carry, and a person for work that is real.” These two sentence lets me to think about that even there’s