Write a short essay in which you examine the figurative language in “Concrete Mixers."
Explain what the concrete mixers are compared to, what the parts of the mixers are compared
to, and what the drivers of the mixers are compared to. Then, show how the comparisons are
related. Use details from the poem in your response. Use the reading selection to help you
answer the question.

Concrete Mixers by Patricia Hubbell

The drivers are washing the concrete mixers;

Like elephant tenders they hose them down.

Tough gray-skinned monsters standing ponderous,

Elephant-bellied and elephant-nosed,

Standing in muck up to their wheel-caps,

Like rows of elephants, tail trunk.

Their drivers perch on their backs like mahouts,

Sending the sprays of water up.

They rid the trunk-like trough of concrete,

Direct the spray to the bulging sides,

Turn and start the monsters moving.

Concrete mixers

Movie like elephants

Bellow like elephants

Spray like elephants,

Concrete mixers are urban elephants,

Their trunks are raising a city.

Explanation:

faithful servants eumaeus and philaetius:

his ragged vest then drawn aside disclosed the sign conspicuous, and the scar exposed: eager they view'd, with joy they stood amazed with tearful eyes o'er all their master gazed:

these servants know ulysses by the scar he got when he was a child - so when he showed them the mark, they immediately knew this is truly their master and they hugged him, finally starting to believe his words.

jenkins wanted the narrator to write a ghost story for his magazine. he wanted the narrator to give the readers a story based on the supernatural. he wanted him to give the readers real 'horror' stories and not the type of live ghosts which he had presented in his earlier stories.