Slam+Poetry

=Totally Like Whatever, You Know?= media type="youtube" key="pKyIw9fs8T4" height="315" width="420" **In case you hadn't noticed, ** **This poem is very interesting. I think that the theme is how our speech has become infested with unnecessary words and phrases such as "Like" and "You know?". The poet is trying to tell us that such talk is not proper, and when using this so called style of speech you sound like you do not know what you are talking about. ** ** Important Words and Phrases ** **Poetic Devices**
 * it has somehow become uncool **
 * to sound like you know what you're talking about? **
 * Or believe strongly in what you're saying? **
 * Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s **
 * have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences? **
 * Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know? **
 * Declarative sentences - so-called **
 * because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true **
 * as opposed to other things which were, like, not - **
 * have been infected by a totally hip **
 * and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know? **
 * Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this; **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">this is just like the word on the street, you know? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It's like what I've heard? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What has happened to our conviction? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Have they been, like, chopped down **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">with the rest of the rain forest? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Or do we have, like, nothing to say? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Has society become so, like, totally . . . **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I mean absolutely . . . You know? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like . . . **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">whatever! **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is just a clever sort of . . . thing **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to disguise the fact that we've become **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the most aggressively inarticulate generation **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to come along since . . . **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">you know, a long, long time ago! **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you, **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I challenge you: To speak with conviction. **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the determination with which you believe it. **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You have to speak with it, too. **
 * **happened**
 * **nothing to say**
 * **whatever**
 * **inarticulate**
 * **speak**
 * **authority**
 * **manner**
 * **know what you're talking about**
 * **declare**
 * **opinion**
 * **determination**
 * **say what you believe in**
 * **uncool**
 * **question**
 * **totally**
 * **you know?**
 * **uncertainty**
 * **wisdom**
 * **manner**

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In case you hadn't noticed, **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">it has somehow become uncool **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to sound like you know what you're talking about? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Or believe <span style="background-color: #00ff00; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">strongly in what you're saying? alliteration **
 * <span style="background-color: #00ffff; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s personification **
 * <span style="background-color: #00ffff; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Declarative sentences - so-called **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">as opposed to other things which were, like, not - **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">have been infected by a totally hip **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and <span style="background-color: #ff9900; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">tragically cool <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> interrogative tone? You know? <span style="background-color: #ff9900; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">oxymoron **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this; **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">this is just like the word on the street, you know? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It's like what I've heard? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What has happened to our conviction? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Have they been, like, chopped down **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">with the rest of the rain forest? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Or do we have, like, nothing to say? **
 * <span style="background-color: #8e7cc3; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Has society become so, like, totally . . . simile **
 * <span style="background-color: #8e7cc3; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I mean absolutely . . . You know? **
 * <span style="background-color: #ff9900; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like . . . simile **
 * <span style="background-color: #ff9900; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">whatever! **
 * <span style="background-color: #00ffff; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness metaphor **
 * <span style="background-color: #00ffff; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is just a clever sort of . . . thing **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to disguise the fact that we've become **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the most aggressively inarticulate generation **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to come along since . . . **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">you know, a <span style="background-color: #ff00ff; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">long, long time ago! repetition **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you, Repetition **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I challenge you <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: To speak with conviction. **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the determination with which you believe it. **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Because contrary to the <span style="background-color: #00ff00; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">wisdom of the bumper sticker, personification **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You have to speak with it, too. **