This makes their cause seem pathetic as the pingpong table is "symbolic" to them, but to us it is just briefly mentioned like he is making fun.

I love how he puts something so ordinary next to such a violent image. He always bring it back to literature which shows how much pain art can cause.

This to me reads as if he is talking about them being young and innocent. "Universities" and "radiant eyes" sounds like they are keen to drink up all of the knowledge they can get.

When I first read this I read it as she was calling both the world and the child cruel, maybe because the child is causing her so much conflicting pain.

I like how she relates pain and suffering to matters of the heart. In one way it romanticises suffering however I think she just wants the poem to read tenderly rather than fairy tale suffering.

The constant use of hyphens reflects her thoughts wandering off to terrible things and her forcing them back again. It shows how torn and repressed she is.

Is she talking directly to her or thinking about her?

The clothes are 'trick' because they are hiding the real him. They give a false image and she can see this because she can gather more of him from his face that his clothes.

The lines are broken up in an unusual way. It doesn't read naturally but it reflects a kind of confusion. Perhaps it's to show her bewilderment at the bottle of sand and as she begins to understand everything about the man the lines get longer into almost full sentences as everything makes sense to her.

The meter is unusual as it is three lines which doesn't run as smoothly as if each rhyming section was four lines. Perhaps it is to suggest that to do things "differently" and to stand out is what she wants.

For me this line represents the value of the people/nation she is writing about. "Bronze" may not be rich like gold or silver but it makes up more of what we have in life, which makes it infinitely more valuable.

Is the "I" just her or does it represent a whole nation of people?

The poem continues to mention place names. It shows that Brown has a knowledge of the places around him as well as almost giving shout outs to certain places, as if he wants to include everyone.

Switches to 'you'. This could be to speak to a broader audience and to reflect that he is writing for the average person not the elites.

Each stanza is four lines and it keeps this throughout. It makes it sound even more like a song as it follows an orderly rhythm.

Rivers being older than human blood evokes the idea of creation and nature being more powerful than man. The tiny figure of the man compared to the huge hand similarly suggests the insignificance of human beings. The landscape spans way back into the distance as if it will still go on forever even without human existence.

It's interesting that he has used the word 'sing'. Perhaps it's to show how deeply ingrained America is within him as songs are representatives of tradition and things passed down generation by generation.

The wealth of the older African American members of society could be a thing that new migrants looked up to and aspired to become. It could also be seen as a false representation of what life would be like as few lived like this.

This reminds me of John Sloan's Night Windows as it makes me think of endless toil and hard labour. The artwork has a similar feeling as it depicts people living in places of hardship and surrounded by the black fog of a city as if they cannot escape from toil.

"Though as for that the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same"

The opening echoes Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken as both use a mixture of thriving and dead nature. It's interesting how nature is unsettling in the wasteland as spring uncovers what was forgotten in winter. I think that Frost does a similar thing as he talks about being able to notice 'time passing' by the wear of the paths. If we think about Frost's ironic tone perhaps Eliot is doing a similar thing as winter isn't really a more forgetful month we just comfort ourselves with that thought.

https://youtu.be/EfK-WX2pa8c

This makes me think of London Calling by The Clash because they sing 'The ice age is coming, the suns zooming in Meltdown expected, the wheats growing thin Engines stop running, but I have no fear 'Cause London is drowning, and I, I live by the river'

London is a good setting for the end of the world because it's like the centre point for civilisation so if that shuts down then there would be chaos.

This section reminds me of Cormac Mccarthy's Blood Meridian.

I like that the narrator includes himself in the poem, it makes the whole thing seem more desperate as even he will die.

I really like the personification here.

The quote above reads "I saw with my own eyes the Sibyl at Cumae hanging in a cage, and when the boys said to her: “Sibyl, what do you want?” she answered: “I want to die.” " From the Satyricon by Gaius Petronius

It sounds like a temptation from the devil. The listener might be persuaded by 'something different' but the talk of shadows and red rocks seems dangerous.

Sounds disturbingly beautiful.

They read like practising polite replies to strangers.

This feels like reading Virginia Woolf, like following a thought pattern for a while and seeing it change and merge with other thought patterns.

It's as if she is trying to form the word first, like when you forget how to say or spell something so you do it in sections.

It reads like a note left to someone. The short length furthers this as it is almost hurried.

He makes a lot of references to plants. 'goldenrod', 'choke-cherry or viburnum'. It suggests that the narrator is familiar with the outdoors, like he has had to make his home there or has had to make them his only company.

Like cubist art, it presents one image but from different perspectives or at different times. One single image can have as much depth as a whole span of things.

Typically people speak of love as if it will take away pain and let you forget your troubles but here she is open about that just not being true. Even though in the end she says she would still choose love she is not dismissing the fact that the pain and suffering will still be there.

The bad things completely outweigh the good. It makes the rose (or good people in general) seem fragile and more rare.

"Cut down" suggests that he is a tree. It relates man to nature, perhaps because nature lives and dies like the circle of life.

The rhyming couplets sound like a journey plodding on, especially with the repetition of the last lines. It is almost like one foot being placed after the other.

Makes it sound as if nature was made for man to enjoy.

The fact that he is unsure of the right saying suggests that he doesn't really know why they are putting the wall back together in the first place. It's just something they are used to doing. Walls have been there for a long time so they will keep rebuilding it even if there's no use for them now.

By both shouting and singing a lifetime of emotions has been summed up in one line. It suggests both pain and joy throughout her life and both she is content about.

The shift from meeting Davis to being married for seventy years happens very rapidly. The casual way in which this is mentioned suggests that the expectation of the time was that she would meet a man and marry him.

First the room acted as her prison and now it is her sanctuary. It could represent how women were constantly told their place within society that the thought of breaking out of that actually became terrifying because of how often they were told where they belong. Her shoulder fitting in the wall symbolises the way in which women fit into the home. They are essentially a part of it.

Shutting the window acts as a barrier to shut away her thoughts.

The repetition of 'what can one do?'/'what is one to do?' suggests her position as a woman as she really has no other choice but to follow their instructions.

Power has been described by first motors, then women, now horses. Power seems to be things that are uncontrollable and desired to be controlled by men.

'The' woman furthers the idea of woman as an unsure thing.

Interesting how 'human' is used as a term for greatness yet these machines sound more powerful and dangerous.

Personifies the motor making it seem even more of an ingenious invention as it has a mind of its own. It highlights Langley's interest in it.

Earth is the mother figure but it doesn't have the calming effect that a mother figure would typically have. It is unnatural as earth is normally spoken about for life not destruction.

The sounds used for the opening few lines are C's, S's and B's which sound cutting and harsh setting a tone of toil and hardship.