When I first read the poem "To Be of Use", by Marge Piercy, I read it on a literal level. Like most people, I thought that Piercy was literally talking about how she loved best the people who are hard workers. Even after inerpreting the text of the figurative language, I still believed the poem was about the ones who go above and beyond to get work done. After discussing the poem in class I discovered that the theme of hard work was only the surface meaning of the poem and there was much more to it than just that. Although it is about hard workers, it's about the ones work hard to serve others, "who strain in the mud and muck" (Piercy, Stanza 2). We strain because it is hard for us as human beings to lay down our selfish ways and serve others whole heartidly because all we want to do is serve ourselves. She loves the people of which have clean and evident work, the ones that strive to put others before themselves. We all want a purpose in life, Piercy describes people as a "pitcher" that "cries for water to carry," (Piercy, Stanza 4) This reminds me of how in the Bible it refers to people as vessels, a container of some sort meant to carry things. In the Bible, the vessels were God's people and their purpose was to share God's word and to be used by Him. So as we dig deeper into the meaning of the poem we come to find out that it is about much more than just hard workers, but about serving others.
-Kaylee Hernandez
