Elise\’s Blog

Dana Gioia’s “Money”

Money, the long green,
cash, stash, rhino, jack
or just plain dough.

Chock it up, fork it over,
shell it out. Watch it
burn holes through pockets.

To be made of it! To have it
to burn! Greenbacks, double eagles,
megabucks and Ginnie Maes.

It greases the palm, feathers a nest,
holds heads above water,
makes both ends meet.

Money breeds money.
Gathering interest, compounding daily.
Always in circulation.

Money. You don’t know where it’s been,
but you put it where your mouth is.
And it talks.

-         no rhyme scheme

-         “cash stash”-> internal rhymes

-         Lots of line breaks after commas

-         Six stanzas

-         Three lines per stanza

-         No syllabic rhythm

-         Ironic poem-> sarcasm? “To be made of it! To have it/ to burn!”

-         Blunt-> lists slang terms for money in first stanza-> “the long green,/ cash, stash, rhino, jack/ or just plain dough”

-         Second stanza-> hash consonant sounds-> “CHoCK iT uP, fork iT over,/ SHeLL iT ouT. waTCH iT/ burn holes through pockets”

-         Also in second stanza there is assonance of the “O” soundà chOck, Over, OUt, hOles, through, pOckets

-         Third stanza is more words that mean money-> “Greenbacks, double eagles,/ megabucks and Ginnie Maes”

-         Fourth stanza is sarcastic-> says that money can do all sorts of things like how it “holds heads above water”

-         Fifth stanza is about how money reproduces and is in a circulation-> contrast of truth with sarcasm

-         Sixth stanza implies that money is unsanitary (“You don’t know where its been,/ but you put it where you mouth is”)-> plays with the saying put your money where you mouth is-> last line “And it talks” implies that your money tells something about you