Puerto Rican Obituary

Much of the effect of “Puerto Rican Obituary” comes through the use of repetition, which begins immediately in Line 1: “They worked.” This line appears six times in Stanza 1, as Pietri places emphasis on it by always placing those two words on a line by themselves. In fact, the last three times the phrase appears, it does so in consecutive lines (Lines 14-16), creating a rhythmic refrain that emphasizes both the importance of this fact and the tireless work ethic of the five Puerto Rican immigrants. A number of other lines that begin with the plural pronoun, they, reinforces the sense of tireless effort as well as the relentless of the actual work : “They were always on time / They were never late / They never spoke back” (Lines 2-4). Their efforts were such that “They worked / ten days a week / and were only paid for five” (Lines 11-13), which could mean that they worked two full-time jobs each, for poor pay; or, they might have worked unpaid overtime, or they might have worked harder than everyone else, offering employers the equivalent of two workers’ efforts. Regardless of its meaning, as the speaker states again in Line 16, “They worked.