poem help: Poety Assignment..This poem is quite famous. - Help.com

what is the title of the poem?

i get what is happening in the poem, but perhaps the title can help me figure how what the author is trying to say

power…nm…let me think for a second

ok i got it

you there

ok then

What I always look towards is the title o the poem when trying to interpret what the author wants you to understand.
In this case it is “Power”- and you have two sides to this poem..the children that are in hidden and the train (itself) and the man - so what you need to be looking for is how the author is defining power- and how that changes through the poem

The first line says it all “No one we knew ever stopped a train”

So the train itself is the symbol of power…

What actually is happening is the children have made a fake child and put it on the tracks

that is why they say things like - the clothes looked real enough and the author notes that they are surrounded by paper

the children are hiding to see what happens…keeping in mind that they never knew anyone who stopped a train…by the end of this poem…they do

They made this man think for a brief moment that he killed a child…they had the power to stop the train, but it was at a cost of the emotional distress of the man

the idea of power being something of a physical nature…is questioned in this poem

by the end of this poem …the true power is in the emotion- the train is stopped and the man falls to his knees..and the children…who just moments before saw it as a simple joke are suddenly faced down..unable to look away from- the damage they have done

Have anything else you need help with?

ok give me a sec to read it over again..no problem :) I enjoy this kind of stuff

After going over it again..you could add…about the whole “power” idea..that the one child..in the middle of everything that has happened..stops to remember whether it is his red shirt or his brothers…which reveals that the child is fully aware of the “what if it were real” notion

ok I will tey to make my way through your list as best I can…i have not done poetry work in quite a while…lol

I would first off agree with you that it is informal…because of the structure of the poem…there is no set rhyme or rhythm

Yeah…formal poetry has a formula some what on the construstion and on the process…you could say that it follows a formal process…which if I remember correctly..goes somewhat like
1. The opening of the poem presents the conflict
2. The body of the poem- is like that of the climax of a story
3. The end of the poem- reveals the conclusion, or lesson
- but the structue of the poem..or it use of rhyme and rhythm..is not formal, because this poem does not follow any particular formula…like that which you would find in a sonnet, etc
I actually like poetry lol, but it can be difficult

The clothes were meant to be a joke..the newspaper and such were used to stuff it to look like a child

Connotation and denotation can be tricky. Connotation you want to look for words and or phrases that are intended to make you feel rather then give you a literal meaning, and for denotation you are looking for the opposite…words and phrases that are meant literally

The message of the poem can usually be more easily discovered by looking at the title…Power…the lesson the children learned was what power really is…although they were able to stop a train, they were also faced with the power of their own mortality in a round about way , because that one line”"I tried to remember which of us That red shirt belonged to” shows that the children were just expecting for it to be some harmless joke, but it ended up…making all the characters , the man, and the two children , face this …(don’t want to sound cheesy) powerful moment, where the man goes through the emotions of thinking he may have killed a child, the children are suddenly faced with this man crying and falling to his knees and the kids can not look away- that emotion, that moment is where the power is…both the man and the children go home that night learning something about themselves and about life overall

It was a valuable lesson- whenever death of the possiblity of death is ever brought into a poem..there is always a strong message that the author is trying to get across

Chance are the children had no real concept of death…once again it was just a joke, but that idea changes by the end of the poem..it goes from being fun to a much more dark and emotional tone..

Take notice as well…that at the end of the poem the one child is covering his ears…when the man os sobbing…Why?

Throughout the enitre poem it describes the sound of the train..in a way that would make you think that the children would cover their ears…(”terrible long screech of the train..”) but they don’t…

This action at the end…shows that the child cannot bear to listen to the man cry , yet he can listen to this huge train without covering his ears…once again you have to ask why did the author choose to put that line there at the end of the poem?

lol thanks no problem ..if you need anything else let me know

cewl

:)