Aguah 1
Jessica Aguah
Professor Velez
ENG 1B 41090
23 April 2023
Literacy Devices of Lisa Parker’s “Snapping Beans”
The poem “Snapping Beans” by Lisa Parker dramatizes the contrasts between two speakers, one
young and one of a very mature persona. Parker communicates these differences through the use
of descriptive language, dramatic irony and symbolism.
As the two aforementioned sit in each others company, lines 1-3 reveal how the younger
persona feels distance and tension during the silence in which the persona shares with the older
persona.. “I snapped beans into the silver bowl / that sat on the splintering slats / of the porch-
swing between my grandma and me”. The persona and older character sit on an old porch-swing
with “splintering slats; ” the use of splintering is referring to the condition or rather old condition
of the swing and how “splintering” the silence is between them as well.
As one reads Lines 4-7 the reader discovers the younger persona is home from school
up North, visiting the older persona down south whom must be a devout Christian as she recites
“what a friend we have in Jesus” , this line further emphasizes the awakened silence between the
persona and other speaker. More than likely the persona has so much to catch the older persona
up on but instead, there is a continuing uprising of anticipation between both personas like the
sun is rising “pushing pink spikes through the slant of the cornstalks”
Aguah 2
In Lines 10-12 the silence between them breaks. The sun is up and Grandma stopped
humming. 12-15 the grandmother persona addresses the young persona with a “softness” and
asks her how “school is a goin” further revealing deep south roots, curious about her
granddaughters experience in the North.
Lines 16-17 the persona reveals the entire time she’s been thinking about all the things she really
wanted to tell the other persona. The stanzas are arranged to highlight her anticipation and racing
thoughts. The line breaks emphasize the flow of thoughts amongst the persona. “I wanted to tell
her about my classes, / the revelations by book and lecture,/ as real as any shout of faith / and
potent as a swig of strychnine.”
Lines 20-25 reveal the older persona gently searching for truth as the experienced
personas “leather” hand reaches over the bowl, into the young personas space, instilling a
familiar trust between the two. Persona one knows this gesture is endearing because it’s the same
way “she held tomatoes under the spigot, careful not to drop them, and I wanted to tell her”. As
the persona experiences this familiar comfort it’s almost as if she will burst into sharing her new
livening experiences but instead the persona retreats back to her racing thoughts and thinks twice
about it.
Lines 25-39 reveal the personas feelings about branching off and finding her way in the
world. Her experiences were overflowing with new perspectives and a plethora of emotions. The
younger persona wanted to reveal to the older persona, how despite her southern Christian
upbringing there’s more out there. The persona was “splitting [herself apart] with the slow
simmering guilt of being happy despite it all” (36-38).
Aguah 3
Lines 39-44 reveal the speaker chose to save herself from stirring up distress within the
older persona while avoiding judgment. From the beginning line to the ending lines the poem
represents a fleeting moment, the younger persona chooses to keep things short and the older
persona out of her new world with the response “school is fine”. And the poem repeats the first
line “we snapped beans into the sliver bowl between us” (39) Once again there is a Veil between
the younger persona, “the silver bowl” filled with beans and the older persona. The younger
persona could stay in the familiarity of childhood and known comforts while visiting her
southern home from the north.
Ironically as the persona finishes speaking - the two personas catch a glimpse of a
“hickory leaf, still summer green” gliding on the wind. The hickory leaf represents the younger
persona in a sense that, the way she lives her life is like that of the “still summer green hickory
leaf” that skidded onto the front porch. “It’s funny how things blow loose like that” ends the
poem. Suggesting that this one leaf was out of place blowing around in the wind like that; Still
young with nothing to anchor it down. The last line means we all get carried away on our own
path, reinforcing the contrasts between the older and younger persona.
Work Cited
Meyer, Michael, et al. “Snapping Beans.” Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading,
Thinking, Writing, 12th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2020, pp.506.
