Miscellaneous Verses

 Equiano includes a set of miscellaneous verses at the end of chapter eight in his The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.  When I first opened the book to see these miscellaneous verses, I was a little bit confused on why Equiano specifically inserted these miscellaneous verses at this specific part in the book.  I think that these verses are really good, and I like the rhythm that it has due to the rhyming of lines.  In class on Thursday, I was glad that we read these miscellaneous verses from the book aloud because I think that the rhythm is more easily heard in poetry when it is read aloud.  I also think it gave us more context for being able to discuss these miscellaneous verses in class.

I feel like the miscellaneous verses have a lot of emotion in them, so it works well as a poem due to how poetry brings out emotion.  I think that Equiano wrote these verses with emotion, and I think that we can especially see this emotion play out when he mentions his griefs, sorrow, and pain throughout the miscellaneous verses.  

I think that poems can be interpreted in a lot of different ways depending on how you look at it.  In my opinion, I think that Equiano does appeal to his audience throughout these miscellaneous verses.  For example, he states before the verses start something about the benefits of Christianity and also ends the verses with talking about salvation from Christ.  I think that appeasing the audience allows him to get his audience to actually listen to him.