The first poem, actually song lyric, describes a run-down mother and child, in a desparate situation. The first stanza is a chorus, and then describes a baby being born into poverty, into a slum filled with rats, and the doctor hastily coming and leaving on his rounds. The second stanza describes the noisy neighbors, and how the mother is getting drunk on gin, and how they will take her baby away because "they know all about her bad habits". Next, it describes the mother telling the child why her father is in prison for three years: "pride". It wraps up with the chorus again, which describes steel prisons and the circle of life going on and on.
The second poem, by Emily Dickinson, describes her figurative meeting with the character of death. In the first stanza she says that death stopped for her in a carriage, and they rode on, with immortality. Next she describes how they drove slowly, which was fine, because she had "put away my labor, and my leisure too". Next, they pass children playing, the sunset, the fields growing (all signs of life). Then the day grew cold because she was only wearing her gossamer gown. In the next stanza they stop before a "house", which is really a grave, and the last stanza indicates that there she has rested for centuries.
I am out of room so can't do the last poem. I suggest submitting it separately, and it will probably get explained.
No comments:
Post a Comment