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Maren Stuart
As I Gaze Upon
my Father
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As I gaze Upon my Father
page 155
 Stanza 1
In the brownish photo, my father
Sits up straight
Like a wooden board
With his knees crossed
And his hands folded gently over his knee
But the sheepish smile gives him away
Like a pen trying to be a pencil
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As I gaze Upon my Father
 Stanza 2
He wore a white oxford
That was perfectly pressed
And smooth as a newborn’s flesh
As a second layer he wore a wool sweater
That was rough as sandpaper
As if to show his life.
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Vocabulary
 Line 6: Sheepish: showing or feeling embarrassment from shame
or a lack of self-confidence.
 Line 8: white oxford: Oxford is a type of woven dress shirt fabric,
employed to make a particular casual-to-formal cloth in dress
shirts that may be called Oxford shirts.
 Line 9: pressed: flattened, shaped, or smoothed by the application
of pressure, typically from an iron.
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Vocabulary
Oxford white
Pressed
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Stanza 1 notes
 Line 1: ‘Brownish’ tells us that the photo is old and faded.
 Line 2: ‘Sits up straight’: Alliteration of the ‘s’ sound.
 Line 3: ‘Like a wooden board’: Simile comparing the father’s
posture to that of a wooden board.
 Line 6: ‘sheepish smile’: Alliteration of the ‘s’ sound.
 Line 7: ‘Like a pen trying to be a pencil’: Simile comparing a pen
that’s trying to be a pencil meaning her father was very formal trying
to act like he was relaxed.

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Stanza 2 notes
 Line 8 : ‘He wore a white oxford’: Alliteration of the ‘w’
sound.
 Line 9: ‘Perfectly pressed’: Alteration of the ‘p’ sound.
 Line 10: ‘And smooth as a newborn’s flesh’: simile
comparing the smoothness of the father’s shirt to a new
born baby's skin.
 Line 12: ‘That was rough as sandpaper’: Simile comparing
the father’s wool sweater’s texture to the rough texture of
sandpaper.