Caitlin Dempsey - Date & Time Blog

Caitlin Dempsey

EN.101.18

Date & Time Analysis

September 15, 2020

            The book “Date & Time” by Phil Kaye is a collection of poems about Kaye’s life. However, the book does not go in chronological order. The first poem in the book is a conversation the author has with his seven-year-old self. Then the book moves into the first set of poems is titled “End”. Throughout the book we get mini stories about Kaye’s life and what made him into who he is today. 

            After the “End” section of the book comes the section titled “Beginning”. These poems give a lot of backstory to the poems in “End”. One poem in particular is the poem “Teeth”. This poem talks about the lives of his grandparents who fought against each other in World War II. In the first section of the book, the poem “Self-Portrait in Wartime” describes two people in the same war from two different perspectives. At the end of the poem, it shows that the people were Kaye’s grandfathers. In “Teeth”, Kaye goes into much more detail about the wars and about what each member of his family went through on the different sides of the war. At the end of the poem Kaye makes it clear to his “Granpy” that he won’t forget what happened to his family during the war, showing how important he views his family history. However, Granpy protests his idea and wishes Kaye would forget what has happened and calls it a “plague on both [his] houses” (Kaye 54). This shows that Kaye and his family have gone through a lot of difficult times that make lasting impacts on their lives. 

            Throughout the book Kaye describes parts of his life through poems. These poems are not in chronological order however they still tell the stories of his life. As mentioned in his poem “Beginning, Middle, End” “a great story has a beginning, middle, & end but not necessarily in that order we are all great stories” (Kaye 17) especially his.


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