Technology by Mariano Solorzano

The Secret of the Machines
by Rudyard Kipling

(MODERN MACHINERY)

We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine,
We were melted in the furnace and the pit—

We were cast and wrought and hammered to design,
We were cut and filed and tooled and gauged to fit.

Some water, coal, and oil is all we ask,
And a thousandth of an inch to give us play:

And now, if you will set us to our task,
We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!

We can pull and haul and push and lift and drive,
We can print and plough and weave and heat and light,
We can run and race and swim and fly and dive,
We can see and hear and count and read and write!

Would you call a friend from half across the world?
If you’ll let us have his name and town and state,

You shall see and hear your crackling question hurled
Across the arch of heaven while you wait.

Has he answered? Does he need you at his side?
You can start this very evening if you choose,

And take the Western Ocean in the stride
Of seventy thousand horses and some screws!

The boat-express is waiting your command!
You will find the Mauretania at the quay,
Till her captain turns the lever ’neath his hand,
And the monstrous nine-decked city goes to sea.

Do you wish to make the mountains bare their head
And lay their new-cut forests at your feet?

Do you want to turn a river in its bed,
Or plant a barren wilderness with wheat?

Shall we pipe aloft and bring you water down

From the never-failing cisterns of the snows,
To work the mills and tramways in your town,

And irrigate your orchards as it flows?

It is easy! Give us dynamite and drills!
Watch the iron-shouldered rocks lie down and quake
As the thirsty desert-level floods and fills,
And the valley we have dammed becomes a lake.

But remember, please, the Law by which we live,
We are not built to comprehend a lie,

We can neither love nor pity nor forgive.
If you make a slip in handling us you die!

We are greater than the Peoples or the Kings—
Be humble, as you crawl beneath our rods!-

Our touch can alter all created things,
We are everything on earth—except The Gods!

Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes,
It will vanish and the stars will shine again,
Because, for all our power and weight and size,
We are nothing more than children of your brain!

Jimmy Jet And His Tv Set
by Shel Silverstein

I'll tell you the story of Jimmy Jet--
And you know what I tell you is true.
He loved to watch his TV set
Almost as much as you.

He watched all day, he watched all night
Till he grew pale and lean,
From 'The Early Show' to 'The Late Show'
And all the shows in between.

He watched till his eyes were frozen wide,
And his bottom grew into his chair.
And his chin turned into a tuning dial,
And antennae grew out of his hair.

And his brains turned into TV tubes,
And his face to a TV screen.
And two knobs saying 'vert.' and 'horiz.'
Grew where his ears had been.

And he grew a plug that looked like a tail
So we plugged in little Jim.
And now instead of him watching TV
We all sit around and watch him.

He Made This Screen
by Marianne Moore

not of silver nor of coral,
but of weatherbeaten laurel.

Here, he introduced a sea
uniform like tapestry;

here, a fig-tree; there, a face;
there, a dragon circling space—

designating here, a bower;
there, a pointed passion-flower.

Sestina: Like
by A.E. STALLINGS

Now we’re all “friends,” there is no love but Like,
A semi-demi goddess, something like
A reality-TV star look-alike,
Named Simile or Me Two. So we like
In order to be liked. It isn’t like
There’s Love or Hate now. Even plain “dislike”

Is frowned on: there’s no button for it. Like
Is something you can quantify: each “like”
You gather’s almost something money-like,
Token of virtual support. “Please like
This page to stamp out hunger.” And you’d like
To end hunger and climate change alike,

But it’s unlikely Like does diddly. Like
Just twiddles its unopposing thumbs-ups, like-
Wise props up scarecrow silences. “I’m like,
So OVER him,” I overhear. “But, like,
He doesn’t get it. Like, you know? He’s like
It’s all OK. Like I don’t even LIKE

Him anymore. Whatever. I’m all like ... ”
Take “like” out of our chat, we’d all alike
Flounder, agape, gesticulating like
A foreign film sans subtitles, fall like
Dumb phones to mooted desuetude. Unlike
With other crutches, um, when we use “like,”

We’re not just buying time on credit: Like
Displaces other words; crowds, cuckoo-like,
Endangered hatchlings from the nest. (Click “like”
If you’re against extinction!) Like is like
Invasive zebra mussels, or it’s like
Those nutria-things, or kudzu, or belike

Redundant fast food franchises, each like
(More like) the next. Those poets who dislike
Inversions, archaisms, who just like
Plain English as she’s spoke — why isn’t “like”
Their (literally) every other word? I’d like
Us just to admit that’s what real speech is like.

But as you like, my friend. Yes, we’re alike,
How we pronounce, say, lichen, and dislike
Cancer and war. So like this page. Click Like.

Humanity’s Greatest Invention
by Mariano Solorzano

Allows people to talk to one another across the world,
interacting with people with different ideas and cultures.
Allows people to access all the knowledge in the world,
learning different subjects from math, science, and medicine.
Allows people to buy anything in the world,
from groceries to a car.

Allows people to talk to one another across the world,
you can find people that believe the same crazy stuff you do, like flat
earthers.
Allows people to access all the knowledge in the world,
which includes the lies, such as vaccines cause autism.
Allows people to buy anything in the world,
from guns to people.

This is the internet,
humanity’s greatest invention.

This collection contains various poems related to the theme of technology.
Technology is a constant in our daily lives and thus an essential theme to
explore.

In The Secret of Machines by Rudyard Kipling (1943). Kipling describes the
machines of his era by saying “We are everything on earth—except The
Gods!” Moreover, he uses various literary elements and techniques such as
repetition which can be seen in the poem by the way that Kipling
constantly repeats the word “we” when referring to machines. In addition,
the author uses personification to give the machines a voice and create
the perception that the machines themselves are narrating the poem. In a
different take on technology, Shel Silverstein uses the poem Jimmy Jet and
His TV Set to show how addiction to technology can affect a person. He
does this in a comedic manner saying “He watched till his eyes were frozen
wide, And his bottom grew into his chair. And his chin turned into a tuning
dial, And antennae grew out of his hair.” In addition, we can also see
repetition in this poem by the word “and” which is constantly repeated
throughout the text. He Made This Screen by Marianne Moore shows the
theme of technology by talking about how amazing a screen is. In the
poem, Moore repeats certain words such as “here” and “there” to show how
new things appear on the screen “Here, he introduced a sea uniform like
tapestry; here, a fig-tree; there, a face; there, a dragon circling space” She
shows the power that technology can have by showing how it can create.
The fourth poem in the collection is Sestina: Like by A.E. Stallings, the
theme of technology in this poem is represented through social media. The
poem is criticizing how technology, especially social media is used today
“Now we’re all “friends,” there is no love but Like” Throughout the whole
poem there is a constant repetition of the word “like”, Stallings does this to
demonstrate how social media, in general, has just become a place where
likes are all the matter. The final poem in the collection is a self-writing
poem by me called Humanity’s Greatest Invention. In this poem, the theme
of technology is represented by the thing I believe is humanity’s greatest
invention being the internet. I use repetition in this poem repeating the
same lines twice: “Allows people to talk to one another across the world”,
“Allows people to access all the knowledge in the world”, and “Allows people
to buy anything in the world.” I do this to compare the good and the bad of
the internet as well as to show the good and the bad technology can
produce. In conclusion, in this poetry collection, you will find poems about
the benefits and the drawbacks technology can cause as well as find that
there are common literary elements used throughout the collection one of
them being repetition.