In the poem “The Stranger” by Gord Downie it is about an unknown boy who is

running away from a residential school, where he was disregarded and

physically assaulted. This poem talks about him walking on a secret path trying

to make it back home with his family, it also talks a bit about his father. This

poem has significance in it, because it is based on 12-year old Chanie Wenjack,

who ran away from a residential school in Kenora, Ontario and tried to walk

back home to Ogoki Post – 600 kilometers away. However, Wenjack failed and

died of hunger along the way. Wenjack’s body was then discovered beside a

railroad track by a railway engineer, and on October 27, 1966, he was buried at a

cemetery on a reserve beside the Albany River. The theme of this significant

poem could possibly be, loneliness, anger, fear, sadness, and cold. In the story,

the boy (Wenjack) was forced into the residential school, where he was also

forced to abandon his family, his home, and his life, to attend these schools.

Wenjack was boarded to these school, at the age of nine, and three years later, at

the age of twelve, escaped these schools. Three poetic devices that are used

within this poem are possibly, Elegy: a sad or serious poem story, Free verse:

there is no rhythm or rhyme scheme in the poem, and Form: a style or type of

poem. Reasons for this is because, it is about a young boy, who is cold, hungry,

and scared, there are no words that rhyme with each other, and a type of style

within the story is there are sets of words that are said more than once in a

particular certain line.

“The Stanger” is a sad, interesting poem to read, but in every poem one will

learn something that is either realistic, fake, or humorous.