Cut Apart From Submerged Privacy It can very be difficult for a reader to understand a piece of literature if he or she has not undergone the process of research through background info about different aspects of the literary work. Analysis of the piece can always help, but it is not as effective without background information to back it up. Analysis and background information work hand and hand to cut literary pieces apart from their submerged privacy and uncover very important details hidden between the lines. Mark Doty’s “A Collection of Minerals” is an autobiographical poem, and it paints a very clear picture of when, where, and how he feels about that time in his life. Analysis and background information about the Cuban Missile Crisis and Mark Doty himself can help give the reader more insight into Doty’s emotional journey in “A Collection of Minerals.” In “A Collection of Minerals” Doty yields just enough detail and well thought out descriptions in order to inform the reader of when and where the story takes place. He allows the reader to know exactly how he feels. Doty uses allusion and symbolism tell the story of how his innocence faded away during a troubling time in his personal life and a troubling time in the country. “This was Titusville, Florida, / the year our class practiced/ climbing under our desks, …show more content…
Mark Doty does not provide much info about himself in the poem, so information about him can be of great assistance when interpreting “A Collection of Minerals”. Poetry Foundation says that, “as the son of an army engineer, Mark Doty grew up in a succession of suburbs in Tennessee, Florida, southern California, and Arizona.” Also, “Mark Doty was born on August 10, 1953.” (“Mark Doty”) Line 42 of the poem says that he was in the fourth grade, which means that he was approximately nine years old, during that