Title: How the river influenced the city and the people in it.

Paraphrase: Tere is garbage in the river. The freeways are louder than the river until it rains. It is
louder than thunder from San Gabriels when it rains. Golf balls rattle and kids on bikes are jerks.
There are sounds of many forms of transportation and coyotes. Something about chi and
meetings. Laptops, Bureaucrats and gravels have sounds. They listen for god, bats and
swallows to make hearing smaller. A blue heron honks and rippling water moves along the
rocks. There are sounds in my head and words in my heart.

Figurative Language:
1. The 1-5, 110, and L.B. overwhelm the river and its tributaries with their roar.
pantherification (only panthers can roar)
The freeways were loud.
2. I hear the River singing…
personification
The river is making a nice noise
3. The River is silence
metaphor
The river is quiet compared to other sounds

Attitude/Mood:
Sorrow, feeling bad; The author is feeling bad for the river and now humanity suppressed it’s
powerfulness.

Shift/Change:
Going from the river to the author; Instead of talking about the river, the author talks about
themselves in the last stanza.

Title:
The title is about the sound of the river and the other sounds of the river and the other sounds
that overwhelm it.

Theme:
The L.A. river and sound pollution
We need to be quiet, The river must be conserved and respected.
IT is talking about the river being shunned by sound pollution the entire poem.