INTRODUCTION
One project we worked on during the narrative unit for senior english was the ‘Listener Lyric’ essay. A lyrical essay is “contemporary creative nonfiction form which combines qualities of poetry, essay, memoir, and research writing, while also breaking the boundaries of the traditional five-paragraph essay”. In other words, a lyrical essay combines both poetry, narrative writing, and some other genres of writing into one piece. The intention for our lyrical essay project was to find the ability in ourselves to represent another person’s viewpoint or perspective. For example, the subject in my lyrical essay was someone who struggles with being short. I wrote the essay in second person addressing the perspective of my subject’s life by telling personal stories of theirs.
I hope you enjoy:)
LISTENER LYRIC ESSAY
You are 8 years old, in 3rd grade.
You find yourself in a pack
of children
The blacktop never felt so scary.
You feel small
you hear the school’s PE teacher ordering everyone to line up,
tallest to shortest.
You dread this routine, but you don’t want to draw any more attention to yourself
even though it seems impossible to do so.
You line up in the very back
You see kids fighting about who’s taller
They stand back to back and stand so slightly on their tip toes so no one will notice
They fight over who’s taller
You don’t fight
You don’t stand on your tiptoes
Attention is the last thing you want
You then are broken up into groups for the next activity,
but just like always,
the girl in your class who is the tallest,
can’t resist the urge to bring a ruler from her backpack to show you just how tall she is compared to you.
Look how much taller I am
She says.
You’re hurt.
You are 14, an incoming freshman in high school.
You are lined up on the pool deck in your speedo
about to jump into the pool
ready to try out for the boys varsity water polo team.
It is uncommon to make varsity as a freshman,
especially if you are shorter than 6ft tall.
You stand there, 5’ 4’’,
knowing you will need to work 5 times harder than everyone else
to make up for the height and weight you are lacking.
You dive in the pool and notice no one around you
For a second you feel fast, like you already beat them
But then you look up
Everyone is ahead of you
One stroke for them is
three powerful strokes for you
You are 17, it is your senior year of high school.
You have grown ½ an inch since freshman year,
and everyone else in the pool seems to have grown taller than 6ft.
You are the captain of the team,
yet it makes you look weak when opposing teams see that.
They judge your body by its cover[a],
seeing a 5’ 4’’ boy, although
little do they know,
you’re one of the strongest out there.
Mentally and physically.
You see them making fun of your height as you warm up.
This is your motivation to work harder and be stronger.
The kick off whistle blows and you’re fight mode turns on.
They try to use you to score easy goals.
They think they’ll be able to swim right through you,
but they are wrong. [b]
You show them they are wrong.
You swim right through them
You’re neither a giraffe or a spider, but an elephant.
Not tall or weak, but strong.
You show them that
hard work and determination overpowers
height.
They may never see you as on the same level as them
but you hope they will never underestimate you again.
You know you are more than your height
But at times it doesn’t feel that way.
People treat you as if you are less mature
Or a child
Even when they are younger than you.
It doesn’t matter what SAT score you get or the classes you choose to take.
For some reason, because you are shorter than most, you are looked down upon.
You try to make up for this in and out of the pool.
You can’t change your height
So you work on your strength
You hate that you don’t have control.
You hate that you feel smaller,
If you could, you would change it. But you can’t. So you make up for it.
WRITING PROCESS
To begin the process of writing my essay, I had to choose a subject, and record an interview with that person. Once recorded, I wrote down the transcript of our interview. I used the transcript to put myself in the subject’s shoes and better write my essay. The stories my subject shared I used throughout my writing to engage the pathos (emotion and feeling) connection with my readers.
Overall, this assignment was really challenging. In previous writing/english classes, I had never written in this genre before. Reflecting on the piece, there is definitely room for improvement.
