[Your Professor]
[Your Course]
16-bit Intel 8088 chip
In Bukowski’s poem “16-bit Intel 8088 chip”, there are several terms that are antiquated, including Mactintosh, disc drive, Commodore 64, IBM, Kaypro, Osborne, CP/M, Tandy 2000, and for most users, MS-DOS. The different operating systems do not understand each other since their form of communicating is too strange. Trying to get an IBM to read a disk from a Tandy 2000 is equal to having a native English speaking person trying to read a paper from a native Mandarin speaker.
This miscommunication between operating systems can be as frustrating as trying to speak with a person from another culture, but people have opportunities to learn each other’s language or have an interpreter involved. This is a difficult task for a Mactintosh and a Commodore, for instance, at least without help from a human operator.
The last six lines change from computer jargon to simplistic language, describing a scene where nature has no problem communicating with each other. This change is indicated by one word: “altered” (line 20). This one word explains the change from spring time in Savannah to a computer littered world, it was altered.
The first portion of the poem is hurried, with odd breaks in thought, which drives the frustration of the reader. This frustration is increased with each alliteration that is broken abruptly by a new sound, for instance: “Commodore 64/drive read a file” (lines 4-5). The reader has to stop reading and spend time processing each new line. The last five lines are easy for the reader, the words flow nicely from each new line.
The poem’s treatment of nature in “Population Drifts” by Sandburg is very similar to the treatment of nature in Bukowski’s poem. Both considered nature to be a respite from the hectic life of technology. Sandburg’s poem considers being close to nature as actually living: “take hold of life again/with passion” (Sandburg lines 18-19).
Middle-aged and older people constantly shy away from using today’s new phones and computers, preferring more older methods of paper-and-pen, and face-to-face conversations. The use of complicated machinery to achieve what once was enjoyable can be overwhelming and sometimes, unnecessary.
