Oranges Analysis

"Oranges" is written in free verse. While it's true that free verse is the poetic equivalent of anything goes, that doesn't mean you're free from considering form and meter in this one. (See what w...

You know the rule: You shouldn't assume a poem's speaker is the poet. That being said, there isn't anything in "Oranges" that makes us think this isn't a recollection from Soto's youth. But let's f...

"Oranges" has two distinct settings. First there is the exterior setting. The speaker and his girl are on a walk through an urban landscape on a cold, gray December day in the mid 1960s (judging fr...

Sound-wise, "Oranges" is super-colloquial. Translation: it sounds like the way we speak. It has a conversational tone. When you hear "Oranges" read aloud, it really does sound like someone telling...

Titles usually play a pretty important role in poems and that's certainly the case with "Oranges." What's that you say? You think that because this is such a simple title, it can't possible be that...

Like "Oranges," lots of Soto's poems tell stories using simple, economical language. His poems rely on vivid, sensory details and descriptions rather than ornate language to create diverse, enterta...

This one is like strolling through an orange grove on a sunny day—well, except that it's set on a cold gloomy day. Anyway, "Oranges" tells it like it is without much to trip you up. Thanks, Gary.

Fact: Gary Soto wasn't a super-good high school student—we're talking sub 2.0 G.P.A. here, folks. And now he's a famous writer. Moral: there's still hope. Keep on Shmooping and who knows? Maybe o...

What do you want? It's a first date in the 1960s and they are 12. There's some hand holding but that's it. You'll have to look elsewhere for the steamy stuff.