"Mr. Z" by M. Carl Holman

After first reading this, I noticed a lot of implied imagery and descriptions in the first stanza. For instance, this man "Mr. Z" had a mother with "skin with error" and he dressed "the perfect part of honor." He "won scholarships, attended the best schools... chose raceless views of each situation..." Basically, the first stanza is trying to state that Mr. Z "had it all." Also, I noticed that every two back-to-back lines rhyme. Usually, I think that rhymed poems are choppy, but this poem had a nice flow to it. However, the tone shifts in the second stanza because this stanza is bland. I believe that this symbolizes that Mr. Z's life is bland, even though he has all of these accomplishments. Not only is his life bland, but his diet is too. In this stanza, Holman uses a lot of food imagery, such as "pork" "vintage wines" "sauces" and "salads" just to name a few. I feel that the central purpose of this poem is that everyone knew Mr. Z as a wonderful man, but they didn't really KNOW him. Yes, they knew of his accomplishments, but accomplishments mean nothing if a person doesn't have a personality. The world didn't know Mr. Z underneath his "perfect" life. The theme is trying to allow us to look past what people "do" and to look at people for who they truly are.