Vocabulary Word

College Essay Draft

What intrigues you? Tell us about one work of art, scientific achievement, piece of literature, method of communication, or place in the world (a film, book, performance, website, event, location, etc.) and explain it's significance to you. 

When I was younger, everyone around me had an interest in the written language. I grew up around books, around stories, around rhymes. My grandmother, especially, had been the one to spark my love for literature. One of her nursery rhymes that remain in my memory to this day was the poem of the crooked man.

“There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.

He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile.

He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together in a little crooked house.”

“Nana?” I had asked her, bursting with curiosity. “How can a man be crooked?” All I could picture in my mind was a hunchbacked fellow.

Her exact answer I can’t recall, but I know it had something to do with telling me that the man was not crooked in looks, as I was under the impression of. His personality was crooked, and that had left me absolutely bewildered for the longest time.

The question as to how a crooked personality could be possible remained in the back of my mind after that.  It wasn’t until I came across the poem “As I Walked Out One Evening” by WH Auden, however, that I truly was able to interpret the meaning of it. In the closing of that poem, Auden used the line “You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart.” There it was again. A crooked neighbor, and now my heart was lopsided along with it.

Then the idea struck my mind like lightning, and I saw the meaning of both Auden’s poem and the nursery rhyme my grandmother always used to read me as if it were presented right in front of me.

The crooked person represents a human being, who can appear as a conventional as can be when seen from the outside. But the word “crooked” tells of their imperfections.

Everyone has some faults in his or her lives. Knowing that, we still should all love each other just the same. And that’s what both these poems are trying to get across. Whether it is your friends, or your family, or some celebrities you’ve only read about or seen on TV, they’re all not perfect because the standard of perfection is undoubtedly unreachable. And we’re in acceptance of this.

Maybe the poems are trying to teach us about forgiveness, too. If all of the crooked characters in the nursery rhyme can live in peace knowing each other’s faults and weaknesses but disregarding them all, than humans shall too.

I apply this concept of necessary forgiveness to the life I have, mainly in my family. Experiences faced in previous years have brought upon a lot of rough times for us. Considering we were both stubborn as nails, my mother and I can hardly compromise on anything. There has been weeks where my mother and father went without speaking to each other.  I’ve honestly gathered my money and clothes and packed up to get away at one point when things were particularly bad.

But then I remembered that I couldn’t just turn my back on everyone, and that sometimes I needed to forgive. My mother and I forgave each other for not seeing eye to eye all the time. My father and mother forgave each other for not always being respectful and sometimes ignoring the fact that they were in love. My family that I used to feel like I had to walk on eggshells around in order to not set off the bomb that would cause everyone to go crazy and fight, forgave each other for everything. We realize we’re not all idea, and we’ll never be, but the only thing we can do is forgive and accept.

I see the faults in everyone around me, and I’m sure they see mines too. But we have pure compassion for each other. All of us imperfect people will continue to love our crooked neighbors with all our crooked hearts. And the thought of that, will always be intriguing.   

Word Choice Graphic

The sky was almost entirely covered in fluffy white clouds. To the left was a broad dark rock, almost 25 feet in height. People crouched on the top of the rock, waiting and watching expectantly, as a boy with red printed swim shorts jumped off. He was about half way to the crystal clear teal water. His arms flew back from the impact of the wind and gravity both.