representing misery or make other people affected. The other people here are the old guy.
In the last stanza, the speaker talks more about the object of her explanation in this poem. The object here is “the college boy”. Here, the college
boy was explained about the immoral acts done. The college boy also leaves a baby with no responsibility. The action of leave a baby, the reader can see in the
line 15-16 “has left babies on his sheets this morning”.
2. Table Data Description of Babies
The writer found two dictions and four types figure of speech. There are on poem babies of Michele Amas, the writer tabulates the data by classifying
them in one table.
Stanza Line Quotation
Poem Intrinsic
Analysis
1 1
Babies feast or famine Metaphor Figure of Speech
4 14
The College Symbol Figure of Speech
1 1
Feast or a famine Diction
4 14 The
College Diction
2 6
I see flakes of babies Synecdoche
3. Intrinsic Elements in Babies
Babies is a poem about the domestic life and the way to spend the
time. The author tells of hard and joy of parenting. The reader can see this in several intrinsic elements that found in this poem. The intrinsic
elements in this poem help the reader easily to understand the theme which is the point of that poem.
1. Metaphor
Metaphor is a method of comparison between two or more things that does not use the words like or as. They are one data found in the poem one
babies. On the line one and stanza one, the writer wrote babies and compared with feast and famine.
This poem described a baby with two contradictory things. That is, the feast with famine. Feast more emphasize to something that is happy or pleasure:
when someone has a baby or they feel something different in they life. There are many things that will happen when the child is born, to grow up, such as whining,
hitting, bitting, yelling, and demanding attention. There is pleasure from nurturing the child, and also happiness when getting entertains from the baby. It is also
emphasized in the next verses such as: Some days they can lap at your feet. The parents feel the excitement when they have entertainment from
the baby that has started crawling and lying on their lap. Michele Amas invites the reader to participate and feels happiness being parents. Amas on the next stanza
illustrates that the excitement with the baby make time flies so fast , as listed on line 5 Stanza 1 Other days are shorter”.
Michele Amas compares the feast of having baby with famine. The
shape of this aversion seen from the next stanza in which the old guys as people who feel disturbed, as in the phrase: The old guy, toothless and wearing cursing
shock and jandals is full of babies.
The Babies behavior, such as cry when baby feels pain, or wants something might be a reason why the old guy feels annoyed. Their tranquility
disturbed by the whining or even the crying babies, It was made some one here, the old guys feels uncomfortable
. The two things that make contradictive, was stated in the opening of
the first Michele Amas poem’s, and the writer can come to conclude that when a person has a child or a baby there are two possibilities that occur in the end. The
first, a person who felt comforted and happy being parents. And second, there were people who felt disturbed by the whining and the crying from the babies.
2. Symbol
Symbol is a figure of speech, which has meaning more than what it is. Beside metaphor, the writer could also find symbols in stanza 4 line 14. There is
one found in this poem, the college. The word college according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary means as institution for higher education; College
should be a place to educate students to be better than those who never attend school at all. It even becomes a benchmark of government development to come.
Actually, the college is a place where people seek higher education. But here, the college is inversely than the literal meaning, this poem does not use the word to
refer to any better education. College is represented as a place in which the immoral acts take place. The lines the college boyhas left babies on his sheets
this morning Explain about sexual activity done by college student. The action of leave a baby is an act that is not even responsible for the previous verses describe
the immoral actions visible from the word with sperm in line 2 stanza 1.
3. Diction
Diction, in its original, primary meaning, refers to the writers or the speakers distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression. There are two
data found in this poem. Feast and Famine line 1 stanza 1 and the college boy line 14 stanzas 4. In one side, the writer might interpret the attributing of Feast
and Famine as Metaphor and the college as a symbol, but it also could be interpret as diction. Here the feast and famine and college boy was not literary work only,
but it more than what it was. Feast and Famine are used to explain about two things with different
context and meaning. Michele Amas, describe about Feast with the meaning of religious festival and famine with serious shortage of food. In the formal lexical
the word feast is to describe about the situation in the religious part and it was sacral activities. In this poem feast becomes an indication of pleasure or happiness
of someone who has got a baby. The reader can see that the continuation of happiness poem below: “Some day they can lap at your feet”. In this stanza, feast
is further clear that represent of fun and happiness. Beside this, Amas also used the comparison of happiness with the sadness. In the whole life, there were
goodness and badness. It is also not free from lifes lessons, where there is love then there must be grief. There is also a night and day. All will continue, ongoing
and related to each other. In the happiness, of course, it was not impossible some person that feels uncomfortable with the same thing.
Feast in which represents happiness, side by side with famine, where famine pair with more emphasize on a dislike or a disturbing sense of comfort.
The reader can see the evidence of this aversion in the next poem, which says the word famine which representing misery or make other people affected, as in the
word.“ The old guy, toothless and cursing wearing socks and jandals is full of babies”.
It was stated that not everyone was happy with the presence of a baby. In other words, this atmosphere was supported by using of certain terms of
passions. Such as: angry and upset, from the word that stated in the poem “toothless and cursing”. In this poem could be said that the baby is at the core of
this poem can be a thing that disrupt or create discomfort. The word feast and famine has chosen to represent two opposite
things, the happiness and sadness. Amas prefer this word than any words that usual in general, such as happiness and sadness to enriching the vocabulary.
Because, if the author just uses the word with the simple way, and easy to understand with the naked eyes. It means that the poem was not interested or
meaningless. The author chooses the difficult word to enrich the meaning in hisher poem, for interested the reader. That was why, the author must consider
when choosing the word in hisher literary work, to make life. The writer also can see briefly in terms of writing, said that Feast and Famine is a word that both
proceeded by a consonant sound of F, or is a parallel word, Amas aims to enhance the possibility of a hidden meaning in it. The hidden meaning here might be
appropriate with the gender female. When female, beginning with the consonant ‘F’, and the author also a woman. So the literal word to make the same gender is
‘F’.
Meanwhile, the authors also choose the phrase college boy to describe about someone which is a subject in this poem. The word boy according to the
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary means as a male child, from birth to the age of puberty. The selections of this word was correct, to confirm the sex in this
poem as a subject is a young man. With those explanations, the writer can
conclude that college is a place where there is young man who grew up to find his identity and place to get knowledge. Amas may aim to further reinforce the
specifics about the perpetrator or the main character of his poem addressed to people who were or still continue their education.
4. Synecdoche
Synecdoche is using part of an object to stand for the whole thing, In this poem, the writer found synecdoche in stanza 2 line 6 I see Flakes Of babies.
The word Flakes according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary means a small, very thin layer or piece of something. Flakes of babies
seemed to refer in part to the overall object. Target object here is the flakes of babies, the pieces or flakes contained in this poem as if it represents many of those
babies are in place; these infants represent fragments of the overall nature of the baby. That is why it is called a synecdoche. Because of these flakes, this means
pieces mentioned in part for the whole object babies. In the second stanza also explained about how the babys behavior with variety ways, there was the buckle,
carry, on the back of the car seat and so forth or in a poem such as: “On hand, on shirt fronts, on benches, on the car back-seats” .
From the assertion of stanza above as, it means that the most of babies were doing activities like the explanations on the poem above. From that
statement, it was the reason why the writer said as synecdoche, where part of an object to stand for the whole thing.
4. The Intrinsic elements contributing in building the theme in
