Sean McGrory Literary Analysis 9/13

           The poems “Mending Wall,” “Slam, Dunk, &Hook,” and “Common Ground” all share a common message with the speech “The Service of Faith and Promotion of Justice in Jesuit Higher Education” by Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach. This message that they all speak of is of great determination. Each one of these poems or speech give examples of what it means to have determination and to not let failure settle in.

            The speech by Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach gives great gratitude for the Jesuit universities work on promoting justice to the world. Though it even goes farther in saying how there is always ways for improvement. This is that message of determination that even once you succeeded there is always more you can do for yourself and society alone. 

            In the poem “Mending Wall,” It speaks about something that would not love a wall that keeps tarring it down. This is because each time the speaker has to tell his neighbor to help him rebuild the wall each year. I think this again shows the message of determination because each time the speaker keeps building the wall even though he knows it will be torn back down again. This tells you that no matter how hard things get we must never give up on something that matters so much to us even if it is just a wall.

            In the poem “Slam, Dunk, &Hook,” it talks about boys playing basketball. It speaks of how much they love the game and have such a great determination for it. One example of there determination is even when one of the boys lost his mother he still played basketball all day long. He even was so unwavering in his playing that he almost broke the backboard. This shows you that even in some of are most sorrowful times in life we cant give up on what we truly love and need to look to the good in things.

            In the poem “Common Ground” it speaks of how all the parts of our body tells us something about a person and where they have come from. It talks about how we are all made in the images and likeness of our family members. Which you can see this person is made from people that had great persistence in their lives. They should harness that and learn to better it for themselves and the world. 

            All three poems and the speech show us a great idea of something that we should have in our lives and share to the world. This is because if we all harness persistence we can make the world an even better place for us and for future people to come.