Oranges

“Oranges” consists of 56 unrhymed lines and is divided into two stanzas. Each line is short, often fewer than six words. The lines do not have a consistent meter—there is no arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables—though the similar length of the lines gives the poem a consistency of pace. In Soto’s own words: “I depend upon rhythm, not rhyme and meter, for a poetry cadence that will attract the musically conscious reader” (Interview with Gary Soto. TeachingBooks.net).

"Oranges" is a narrative poem, a genre that uses plot and characters much like a short story would. Soto’s poem has a distinct plot, with a beginning (boy picks up girl for walk), middle (boy buys girl candy at store), and end (girl eats candy, boy feels hope). These sections are marked by deliberate changes in setting: The kids spend the first part walking through town; enter the drugstore in Line 21, exactly midway through the first stanza; and end the poem by going outside following a stanza break in Line 43. The poem also contains three characters: the male adolescent speaker (the boy), his preteen crush (the girl), and the sales clerk sympathetic to the boy’s concerns.