Chord By: Stuart Dybek

1. ChordBy: Stuart Dybek By: Dylan Calloway

2. Chord A man steps out of sunlight, A 10 line sunlight that streams like grace, B 1 Stanza still gaping at blue sky C staked across the emptiness of space, B into a history where shadows D assume a human face. E A man slips into silence F that began as a cry, G still trailing music H although reduced to the sigh of an accordion as it folds into its case I

3. BACKGROUND INFORMATION • Poet and fiction writer Stuart Dybek was born in 1942 and raised on the South Side of Chicago • He attended Loyola University in Chicago and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop • Dybek's father immigrated to the U.S. from Poland and took the job as a foreman at International Harvester; his mother worked as a truck dispatcher and also has two brothers, Tom an actor living in New York City and David, who are the inspiration for some of his stories • He currently teaches at Northwestern University after more than 30 years of teaching at Western Michigan University

4. IMAGES • The meaning if this image is that Dybek is trying to get his life back together and get to happiness. in the last line of the poem “although reduced to the sigh of an accordion as it folds into its case” he is showing that his life has ended

5. IMAGES • Dybek is crying because his life is coming to an end

6. Literal Meaning • The literal meaning of the poem is the man steps outside and the sun is shining bright.

7. Figurative Meaning • The figurative meaning of this poem is that the author is dyeing because when the author says “although reduced to the sigh of an accordion as it folds into its case” or it may be that he is trying to find happiness but is sucked back in to darkness

8. Poetic Terms • Rhyme – Grace, Space • Rhythm – Case, Face makes the poem flow better • Simile- Streams like Grace