The atmosphere is depressing. These old men are near the ends of their lives and their thoughts are unknown.
"And do they watch their dwindling stock of time
With hope, or resignation, or despair?"
I must complete an essay analyzing the atmosphere and how it's portrayed in Home for the Aged by Elizabeth Brewster.My question is how does the use of descriptive detail establish the atmosphere?
I do not know what the atmosphere is in this poem and I am confused on the meaning of the poem as a whole.
Home For the Aged by Elizabeth Brewster:
The old men sit, five of them on a bench,
Half sleeping, half awake, dazed by the sun,
In the muted afternoon, between one broadcast ball game and the next
Their thoughts are leaves that drifted across a sky perpetually autumn.
Their hands are folded: they have done with the Sunday papers.
Decorously shabby, decently combed and clean,
They watch with half closed eyes the passers-by,
The loitering lovers, the boys on bikes , the cars
Rushing eagerly to some scene of active life .
Their lives are folded up like the papers, and who can know
Whether their years passed sober and discreet,
With the measured, dutiful, regular click of a clock,
Or whether some old violence lingers still
In faded headlines on their dusty brains?
What boyhood do they wander in, what middle age forget?
And do they watch their dwindling stock of time
With hope, or resignation, or despair?
6 answers
Thank you, but how do I write a 5 paragraph essay on the atmosphere? I am supposed to analyze and explain how it is portrayed. Does it work if I touch on word choice, imagery, and.. sentence structure( I do not have enough evidence)?
Yes. First write a thesis sentence. Your supporting arguments could be a discussion of the word choice, imagery, and sentence structure. Show how they all portray the atmosphere.
Ok I have ideas on what to discuss for word choice and imagery, but not sentence structure(all I have is the use of questions) so do you have any ideas on that? Or maybe another element of the poem I can use instead?
Please help Ms. Sue!
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