all watched over by machines of loving grace analysis

                The poem, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, by Richard Brautigan, has an anti-technology tone and theme.  When read with the parentheses, the tone of the poem is wistful, almost as if the speaker is wishing that such an ecosystem of nature and technology could exist, but knows that it will not happen.  Also, although most of the poem carries has a more positive demeanor, the punctuation suggests that the parenthetical statements are more important.  The speaker uses exclamation points for the parentheticals, while all other lines are punctuated with commas and periods.  The choice of punctuation makes the parenthetical statements, and essentially the negative statements about technology, stand out from the rest of the text. 

                 

The poem, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, by Richard Brautigan, has a pro-technology tone and theme.  The reader draws a feeling of hope from the bulk of the poem, a feeling that such an ecosystem can and will exist.  While some will argue that the statements contained in the parentheses carry a more negative tone, one could argue that if they were more important than the actual text then the parentheses would not have been included.  The diction of everything outside of the parentheses is positive and describes the ecology of technology and nature to be a beautiful and very possible thing to accomplish. 

When I started the assignment, I was leaning towards interpreting the poem with a positive message about technology, but after doing the first part, I believe the poem has a negative message pertaining to technology.  As much as I would like to ignore the statements in the parentheses, I think the author included those for a reason.  While most of the poem does sound nice and peaceful, the parentheses make the statement jump out.  The punctuation also makes the statements seem like orders or commands, rather than just a poem on the coexistence of technology and nature.  The author included the parentheses for a reason, and although it may be convenient to just look at the majority of the poem for analysis, I believe that the parentheses highlight the importance of those chosen statements.