"Did I Miss Anything?"

Tom Wayman uses poem structure and a disappointed but sassy tone in his poem “Did I Miss Anything?” to emphasis his point that one should take all of the opportunities that they are offered and all the ones that they are not offered as well. The poem switches off answers alternating between saying that the student missed everything in class or nothing in class. This structure shows that there are always two sides to an issue. Even if something seems like a ‘nothing’, it may very well be an ‘everything’. Just because one does not see opportunity in a situation does not mean that there are no opportunities. The poem also gets more fantastical as it progresses. It goes from conceivably true to clearly false in the span of four stanzas. This comes to show the reader that an opportunity may seem crazy but they should still take it. You never know, an angel may appear and reveal the meaning to life. Tom Wayman finishes with a line that is out of place from the rest of the poem but sums up the poem, “And you weren’t here.” This enhances the poem because it is a break from the structure. It shows that one should not always fit the mold and being outside of the mold might just have all the answers. Tom Wayman uses poem structure to its full effect as he reminds everyone to take all the opportunities that they can see.