Literary Device: Hyperbole

an evident exaggeration for the sake of emphasis.

Example:

"For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God!"

Function:

In Luke 18:25, Jesus is teaching his disciples about wealth. As a merchant passes by on a camel, he uses the hyperbole to stress the importance of his message.

Literary Device: Rhyme and Meter

In order to pass the "Poetry" section of the AP Literature and Composition exam, one should use necessary terms and (as the great Alaskan Governor would say) "verbage" in order to impress your reader. Here are some that may help:

End Rhyme- the rhyming of words that appear at the ends of two or more lines of poetry
". ...I am going to choke you,
Until you turn blue.
Or will you turn red?
I'll just choke you till you're dead..."

Approximate Rhyme- words that sound similar but do not rhyme exactly
"...he who likes slavery,
has no morals to live by..."

Refrain- a line or phrase repeated throughout a poem, sometimes with variations, often at the end of each stanza.
"... a dog that misbehaves,
deserves to be beaten
and also you,
deserve to be beaten..."

Meter- the basic rhythmic structure of a verse, and usually depends on acoustic properties of the spoken words, such as the length or stress of their syllables.
"
Iamb- a two-syllable metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable.
" I had a little dog,
It's fur was soft as wool;
It followed me around,
My home, my street, my school."

Trochee- Reverse of the iamb. A metrical foot of two syllables, one long (or stressed) and one short (or unstressed).
"Trochee/ trips from/ long to/ short"

Anapest- A metrical foot of three syllables, two short (or unstressed) followed by one long (or stressed).
"And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold"

Dactyl- a three-syllable metrical foot, consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables.
"Picture your self in a boat on a river with
tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es"

The Second Coming!

Cried Chicken Little.

In a typical 'doomsday fashion', the Second Coming fears for survival (spiritual and literal) of mankind. Not to say that it is an insignificant poem, because it is not. The fact that the 'deeper idea' presented in the poem will be familar to nearly all audiences is part of what makes the poem timeless. What this poem is saying in 1920, people would still say today in 2008:

"...the center cannot hold;...surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand..."

Female Power in 'A Game of Chess'

I know, I know, the titled of this post is a little Oxymoron. But that was intentional. Throughout T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" we see themes and motifs that tie together the 5 sections that differ so much in format and tone. One such motif is female power. The motif itself is sometimes tied to the theme "the becoming of female power in a wasteland created by men" as well as "the loss of female power". In the second section, A Game of Chess, this motif is explored in depth, representing both themes.

A description of a woman on 'throne-like' furniture, the opening of the section, is a reference to a historic female ruler Dido, who was known for acting on emotion and passion. However, many regarded Dido as 'act of control', 'unstable'. After a description of her luxurious furnishing, the attention of the poem is turned to the 'Unstoppered' perfumes. Not only does dowsing herself in perfume (used to hide odors) enforce the motif of 'false reality, unreal', it is transforming this queen-like figure into a more desperate, sadder, entity.

Again, the poem is turned to decour. This time to a wooden mantel. Specific references to water ('sea-wood', 'dolphin swam') are reminicent of "Ophelia", a great female character of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" who lost her life drowning.

References of nighten-gales begin appearing. Traditionally the song of this bird was sad, and of lament, as it was often associated with rape of revenge.

The female entity has become a wasteland, trapped like a piece in a game of chess.

Lyrical Terrorist

Can poetry be a form of terrorism?
Apparently so.
Here is an article published in 'The Times' November 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2836243.ece

"She had the ideology, ability and determination to access and download material, which could have been useful to terrorists.”

“Poetry can be described as disturbing, shocking, even repulsive. What is the intent? Is it to shock, to revolt? That in itself doesn’t make it criminal and it doesn’t help you to get into the mind of who has written it.”

How to Behead

Hold him
Tie the arms behind his back
And bandage his legs together
Just by the ankles
Blindfold the punk
So that he won't hesitate as much
For on seeing the sharp pointy knife
He'll begin to shake
And continuously scream like an eedyat
And jiggle like a jelly
Trust me – this will sure get you angry
It's better to have at least two or three brothers by your side
Who can hold the fool
Because as soon as the warm sharp knife
Touches his naked flesh
He'll come to know what'll happen

Helpful Link: What the Thunder Said

While browsing the net for anything remotely related to T.S. Eliot that could help me pass the upcoming poetry test for AP class, I came across this incredibly helpful site: What the Thunder Said. It is a " a site devoted to the works and life of T.S. Eliot". Are there such things as Poetic Extremists?

Literary Device: Connotation

an association that comes along with a particular word. Connotations relate not to a word's actual meaning, or denotation, but rather to the ideas or qualities that are implied by that word.

Example:

I saw on the slant hill a putrid lamb,
Propped with daisies. The sleep looked deep,
The face nudged in the green pillow
But the guts were out for crows to eat

Function:

In Richard Eberhart's "For a Lamb", those feelings associated with lamb (such as innosense, peace, purity, gentleness) only highlight the ugliness of the situation. So, the connotation of the word serves to reenforce the tone of the poem.

Immature Poets Imitate; Mature Poets Steal

For those of you who avidly follow this blog, you may remember the post "Theivery", in which I placed a link to a sight listing allusion within "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". Well, I have now realized that the quote I presented in that post was incomplete. Here is how it is finished:

"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal;

bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different."

- T. S. Eliot

A Little Something About 'Tarot'

For anyone reading "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot, I would think that having a basic understanding of Tarot is critical. If you are anything like me, you have found yourself facing the poem without any background or knowledge of these 'fortune-telling' cards. Here is a link to 'The Pictorial Key to the Tarot' by Arthur Edward Waite.

Also, applying an author's personal background to their work can reveal a deeper understanding of the text. In case anyone was wondering, the tarot card that matches Eliot's birthdate (9/26/1888) is 'The Heirophant'.

Blues...

Can't hear the wind no more
I said, can't hear the waves no more
I listen and listen. That wind is gone for good.

Can't hear the waves no more
I beg, only for a whisper
I can't remember what it was they used to say.

Can't hear the wind
Can't hear the waves
Are they speaking?
Or is it I who has forgot how to listen.

Literary Device: Caesura

A pause in a line of verse dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by metrics.

Example:

At dinner, in that careful rouge of light
of five or six martinis, you could pass
for Ginger Rongers; we could dance all night
on tiny tabletops as slick as glass
in flying shiny shoes. As Fred Astaire,
my wrinkles grow distinguished as we dine,
my bald spot festers with the growth of hair,
I grow intelligent about the wine.

Function:

In Ted Kooser's "Anniversary", the literary device 'caesura' is employed to reenforce the atmosphere of a couple's anniversary wedding. As the couple are drinking, forgetting their age, the lines breaks are placed in such as way that the poem read very quickily. When the poem turns to descriptions of age and reality, line breaks are placed at natural pauses in speech (caesura's) and underlined with punctuation, making the poem read particularly slowly, like an old persons movement.

a Tear for a Toss

Form: a new challenge? or a suffocating restriction? For the students of Skagway's AP class, writing in traditional form would hopefully help them to recognize the subtle techniques and statements one can control through the form of a poem. Here is my first ever 'published' poem, a villanelle. Enjoy :)

Peach pit tossed into the sea before bed

Sweet Nectar coated hands to never touch again

Ask, What are tears for; When should they be shed?

Damp wings beat against the glass without end

Dawn reveals colored husk to never hatch children;

Peach pit tossed into the sea before bed.

Dew drops clung to fallen leaves and the dead

Dark bone, cracked by an axe. Layers of rings, the grain

Ask, What are tears for; When should they be shed?

Dimming spots, like a river, bled and bled

Down into the dust, the goddess of felines slain;

Peach pit tossed into the sea before bed.

Distant bird calls, screeches; they have all fled

Dark painted people, moving on, ways forgotten

Ask, What are tears for; When should they be shed?

Grey sky parted, pouring rain the color red

Never enough moisture to quench the parched earth. Again

That damned peach pit tossed into the sea before bed!
If not this, what are tears for?
When, if ever, should they be shed?

May Death Unite All

"The Heights of Macchu Picchu, III", translated by James Wright, suggests that disease and death obtain their power not in the people or lives they eliminate, but in their ability to make all individuals equal. As the title of the piece explains, the poem is discussing the the great civilization of the Incas, who built their empire amongst the jagged cliffs of the Andes. More specifically, it recalls an event that may have been what destroyed them: a plague of an unstoppable, uncurable sickness.

Beginning with the comparison of the 'human soul' during an epidemic, to the harvesting and storing of corn (1-2) seems to clarify that the story is being told by an indigenous speaker (rather than by an outsider of the culture). Choosing 'maize' (1) as the crop of harvest also bears significance to the poem. Maize was a plant worshipped by the Incas, the source of all life and substance. So, it seems to be suggesting human souls approach 'cleanliness' during plagues of suffering. As the poem continues, it explains why that is.

These diseases, the poem states, contain the ability to wipe out a population (4-5), causing "not only one death, but many deaths". But it then discusses the insignificance of a death, calling it "a tiny death..a light flicked off in the mud..pierced into each man like a short lance" (5-7). The author is reenforcing the idea of equality. When sickness strikes, each man has an equal chance of dying; each man that contracts disease faces the same fate and each man that dies lays motionless in the same way. Earlier, 'souls' during an epidemic are suggested to be approaching 'godliness' (1-2). Equality is considered morally right, as 'godly' as 'maize'.

People from all walks of life were apparently taken by the plague; from "the captain of the plough" to "the rag-picker of snarled streets" (10-11). Although on the surface level, the poem may seem to be depressing, pained, in tone when it says "everybody lost heart, anxiously waiting for death", but it is actually spoken in a tone of reverence. The people are waiting for sleep and rest, and one can argue that in those finals moments of life, the Incans must have reached a point of acceptance, drinking their bad luck with "shaking hands".

Sonnet This, and Sonnet That...

"Everyone should write at least one sonnet in a lifetime."
- Conrad Geller

As I have read, there are really only two basic guidelines for a 'traditional' sonnet:

A. There are 14 lines.

B. The poet introduces at least one volta (or a jump or shift in direction of the emotions or thought), usually somewhat after the middle of the Sonnet.

There are then two distinct style of Sonnet: Italian and English.

The Italian Sonnets-

Often referred to as "Petrearchan" Sonnets, were is existance before the now more popular 'English' Sonnet. Apparently, they are usually written with a long line of five beats (iambic pentameter), and use 'envelop rhyme'. Some believe it may have developed from the sestina. However, as I am unable to read or understand italian, I can't personally discuss an Italian poets rhythmatic schemes.

The following is an English translation of a Petrach sonnet:

Soleasi Nel Mio Cor
She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine,
A noble lady in a humble home,
And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,
'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.
The soul that all its blessings must resign,
And love whose light no more on earth finds room,
Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom,
Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine;
They weep within my heart; and ears are deaf
Save mine alone, and I am crushed with care,
And naught remains to me save mournful breath.
Assuredly but dust and shade we are,
Assuredly desire is blind and brief,
Assuredly its hope but ends in death.

Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

The English Sonnets-

Often referred to as "Shakespearean" Sonnets, developed from the Italian sonnet. Apparently they use 'alternating rhymes' and the number of rhymes is 7 and concludes with a rhymed couplet.

The following is one of the most famous pieces by the father of English sonnets:

Sonnet XVIII

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee. by William Shakespeare

Sweet Blues!

Hard Time Killing Floor

by: Chris Thomas King

Hard time here and everywhere you go

Times is harder than ever been before

And the people are driftin' from door to door

Can't find no heaven, I don't care where they go

Hear me tell you people, just before I go

These hard times will kill you just dry long so

Well, you hear me singin' my lonesome song

These hard times can last us so very long

If I ever get off this killin' floor

I'll never get down this low no more

No-no, no-no, I'll never get down this low no more

And you say you had money, you better be sure

'Cause these hard times will drive you from door to door

Sing this song and I ain't gonna sing no more

Sing this song and I ain't gonna sing no more

These hard times will drive you from door to door

To hear this poetry put to music, click on the title of the poem, or visit this website:
http://www.last.fm/music/Chris+Thomas+King/_/Hard+Time+Killing+Floor+Blues

An Explication of 'Punk Pantoum'

Our society lives in a disconnect.

As Noam Chomsky would say, we are becoming obsessed with consumerism, capitalism. 'Punk Pantoum' is a commentary on that disconnect, and what it does to a life.

In this poem, we hear the speaker, asking a lover to commit suicide with him. The speaker comes from a wealthy background and was raised in a place of fine horses, elegance, prestige. However, he connects the place he lives in with 'rats, a severed fetlock, muscle, bone and hooves'. He sees that artificiality in those who feel comfortable in capital success. However, 'there's a new song' for the speaker and his lover. A new release, escape from the disconnected world. Like many youth in the world today, the speaker and his lover have turned to 'cutting' to find focus in an artificial world, to feel real pain. "Blood jewels" are enticing to him, because unlike shiny, cold jewels, these ones are real, require pain to create, and were once part of someone. The 'new song', or solution, to their situation is to commit suicide together. The speaker mentions his lovers 'final bruise', after death, she can have no more bruises. With a razor, they plan to create tracks more real than those raced on and bet over by the wealthy.

Literary Device: Symbol

from Greek word 'symbolon' meaning "token, watchword" (applied c.250 by Cyprian of Carthage to the Apostles' Creed, on the notion of the "mark" that distinguishes Christians from pagans). Something which stands for something else - Online Etymology Dictionary

Example:

-- a poor
dry stick given
one more chance by the whims
of swamp water— a bough
that still, after all these years,
could take root,
sprout, branch out, bud—
make of its life a breathing
palace of leaves.

Function:

In Mary Oliver's "Crossing the Swamp", the 'poor dry stick' struggling to flourish in the dark swamp symbolizes the typical, simple man trying to achieve success. By using this technique of symbolism, the author was able to create an even deeper relationship between the speaker and swamp.

Helpful Link: Punk Pantoum

The Pantoum is a vital format to understand if you wish to be successful on the AP Literature and Composition exam in May, or so my teacher says. Here's a link to a pantoum poem you may find helpful. "Punk Pantoum" by: Pamela Stewart
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~richie/poetry/html/aupoem149.html

AP English: What's the Point?

Of the poem. Not the class :)

When considering James Wright's "Lying in a Hammock At William Duffy's Farm in Pine Islands, Minnesota" without the last line of the poem, the speaker sits placidly in a hammock describing the world around him: a butterfly on a tree trunk, sounds of cowbells, a chicken hawk flying overhead. The speaker seems very observatory, attune to the details such as how butterfly wings are blown by the wind "like a leaf in green shadow". He is a person content, comfortable with him surroundings, which he often describes as "golden", able to "lean back" and fall asleep in his outdoor hammock.

The title alone enforces the relaxed tone of the poem. 'Lying in a Hammock' is a relaxing past-time. The fluid shape, that rocks with the wind, creates the image of a restful afternoon. Farms are often associated with 'simple' ways of life, men being connected to the earth and land. So, the fact that the speaker is on a farm promotes and earthy, raw, satisfied tone in the poem.

Although descriptions of different things going on in the farm seem a little disconnected, it just seems the magnify the images of those separate things.

However, all of these interpretations are made without considering the very last, and perhaps most vital, line of the poem "I have wasted my life". Now let us consider the scene and speaker again.

A solitary speaker watches the world around him (a sleeping butterfly, blown by the wind, cows moving with the herd undirected, a lonely hawk) contemplating the waste of his life. He seems to be a lazy individual, as he lays in a hammock from morning, through the afternoon, and into the evening, rocking in the wind. He mentions 'the empty house', highlighting his lonely life style, perhaps he has no family.

The title sheds light on his life style: a farmer of Minnesota. It clarifies that all the images the speaker is describing, are being watched from a hammock: an insecure (although comfortable) place of rest. As the poem describes the actions of a day, from morning until dark, perhaps it is a reflection of his life, beginning to end, and the title compares his life to 'lying in a hammock'.

All of the speaker's descriptions of the natural world are separated, each an individual image, and often presiding an adjective such as 'bronze' or 'gold', lasting metals. As a farmer, he has a certain connection to the land, perhaps he is seeing himself in these small scenes.

"I see the bronze butterfly, asleep on the black trunk, blowing like a leaf in green shadow." Like a the sleeping butterfly, he is in a state of rest, blown and control by the wind, 'bronze' lasting, in the shadow of 'life' (green).

"The cowbells follow one another into the distances of the afternoon." Men, like a herd of cattle, travel undirected, ringing their bells for the world to hear. Perhaps he feels like he too followed others to the end of his life (afternoon) never really going anywhere beyond 'the ravine'.

"A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home." He is the chicken hawk, floats on the winds, looking for his cause, where he belongs, a place to land, a family.

Like the sun pattern in the course of a day, the poem goes from seemingly warm and open (like the rising sun and 'bronze' butterfly) transferring into a sweating, dreary mood (like the hot summer sun and baking horse manuer) and finally ending in lonely exhaustion (like darkness after the sun has set, a solitary hawk, a wasted life).

Lesson of this exercise: Every line in a poem bears significance. If it didn't, the author would not have included it! So consider the importance of every word choice, every statement, especially the note that the author chooses to end on.

La Sestina de Popeye

John Ashbery's "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape" represents the classic sestina; six stanzas of six lines, with a tercet conclusion.

A visual representation by Shelby Surdyk of "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape"

The poem itself is based on the characters of the Popeye comic. On the surface, it is a dramatic scene within Popeye's apartment, involving the Sea Hag, Whimpy, Swee'pea, Olive, and Popeye, as represented in the image above. The Sea Hag, a seemingly ugly woman as her cleft chin is described as having a solitary hair, lays on the couch of Popeye's apartment. Whimpy, who seems very concerned with eating spinach, seems to feel constrained by the apartment that the Sea Hag is comfortable in. An unexpected arrival of the character Swee'pea shakes things up a little further, as he has a note 'pinned to his bib'. The note itself seems threatening in nature, perhaps to discourage the sea hags presence there. Suddenly a fourth character, Olive Oyl, enters the apartment via the window. She announces that Popeye 'heaves bolts of loving thunder', which thunder within and around the apartment. Olive threatens the Sea Hag, saying she would only have darkness and thunder to grow old to, then grabs Swee'pea and exits. The Sea Hags seems perturbed at first by the interupption, and even 'fearful', but quickily finds comfort again within the darkness, the thunder, and Popeye's apartment. In the end, it is discovered that Popeye watches from a distance, as thunder overtakes the apartment.

However, one must assume, by the 'mysterious' nature of the piece, and the technically difficult aspect of creating the sestina, that author intends for the reader to see something deeper.


Some meaning can be extracted from the title itself: "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape". Rutabagas used before pumpkins to create jack-o-lanterns, symbols of trapped souls. Farm Implements could mean techniques, reasoning, and 'laws' of farm life, or equipment needed for farm life, or both. Farm- a symbol for 'rural', 'simple', or perhaps 'uncivilized' life. So, the title seems to be suggesting that the poem is about trapped souls, the items necessary for 'farm life', and simple-minded reasoning all within one landscape, one scene, the apartment.


The repeating words of this poem are (in order of how they are in the first stanza): thunder, apartment, country, pleasant, scratched, spinach.

The Villanelle

One Art
by: Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something everyday. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing further, losing faster:
places and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

The poem 'One Art' is literally a story of the speaker's lost things in life (items, places, people, etc.). However, in a deeper sense, as the title implies, it draws a connection between the mental control one gains after over coming loss, and what it takes to maintain 'poetic control'. Although the speaker of the poem discusses loss (something normally associated with sadness, depression, negativity) the tone of this villanelle is not mournful or regretful. Rather it has an encouraging and seemily controlled tone (saying that a loss 'wasn't a disaster') like a victim who has now recovered, not forgetting past events, but not letting them dictate the future.

Using the format of a villanelle was therefore extremely effective for the author. The repetitive rhyming scheme invokes witty and technically difficult lines. For example

'Lose something everyday. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.'

This line skillfully capture the 'sing-songy' moral lessons of folk songs and rhymes 'an apple a day, keeps the doctor away', so keeps the light hearted nature of the poem.
The repeating lines emphesize how unavoidable loss is. As you read through the poem, you become accostomed to the repeating lines, the same way one becomes accustomed to loss.

Traveling Through the Dark

In William Stafford's "Traveling Through the Dark", the speaker reaches a dilemma. Does he toss the dead doe, swollen with a still alive unborn fawn, into the canyon? Does he leave the 'heap' on the side of the road, because he hasn't the heart to throw an unborn fawn to its death? Or does he take more of his own time, to figure out someway to save it?

When he sees the dead dear on the of the road, he pulls over to get rid of the dear so that no other cars must swerve for its body, which could potentially cause more deaths. This shows that the speaker is a considerate person. However, he seems disturbed by the idea of 'swerving', which shows that although considerate, he doesn't enjoy throwing himself off track in mercy or attempt to save something else. When he pauses, to give the dilemma more thought, he refers to the moment of reflection as his 'only swerving', before tossing the carcass into the canyon. It was the only time he spent 'swerving' or avoiding his original goal; throw the deer off the road. As 'swerving' can 'cause more deaths' and is referred to negatively else where in the poem, it seems that is speaker is proud that the pause was his only 'swerving' but disappointed he swerved at all.

This poem is made of up contrasting imagery: descriptions of the narrow canyon road, the dead doe carcass, the warmth of its living fawn, and the mechanical car in idle. Perhaps the dark, narrow road is symbolic of the narrow passage of life that chasing a career can lead you too. The death-like canyon representing the consequences of 'swerving' from that path. The dead deer; the humanity, pity, mercy that can still exist inside a man driven for corporate power. The car, which is given animal like qualities such as 'purring', is perhaps commenting on the confusion between living and 'artificially life', mechanical life; quality of life vs. corporate success. In the end, the speaker choses to return to his vehicle, after only a slight 'swerve'.

As far as structure of the poem goes, there is some rhyming scheme in place. The end words of the second and fourth lines of each stanzas are slightly similar in sound. 'Road' 'Dead', perhaps reflecting the negative perception of the road by the author. 'Killing' 'Belly', the speaker's dilemma is over killing what lies in the belly of the doe. 'Waiting' 'Hesitated', he hesitated for the fawn. 'Engine' 'Listen', in the end, the speaker listened to the call of 'society', returning to the road. It exists between the first and third lines of the second and third stanzas as well. 'Car' 'Cold', again the connection between the cold hearted nature of the mechanical world, driving along the road towards corporate success. 'Reason --' 'Born' this seems to illuminate the speakers more compassionate side, his 'natural instict', reason, is connected to 'birth', he wants the fawn to be born. Also, the sheer contrast between the end words of the first and third lines of the second stanza, versus those of the third stanza seems to bare some importance. 'Cold' and 'Car' draw from the corporate world, and seem negative in their connection. 'Reason' and 'Born' draw from the natural world, using good reaon, natural instinct, and birth, and seem to be positive in their connection. Finally, the last stanza has only two, giving the impression that it is unfinished. Perhaps this is because the speaker was not completely content with his final decision; still uneasy, unsettled about throwing the unborn fawn over the edge.