Lesson 35
Auto Wreck
1. What imagery does Shapiro use in the first three lines to evoke sound and sight? How do these images become increasingly significant in the context of the entire poem?
The author describes the scene of a car crash. “soft silver bell beating, beating/ and down the dark one ruby flare/ pulsing out red light like an artery”. The noise and the sights are described with detail, the red lights glowing the beating of the siren on the ambulance. The beating and the red is compared to a heart pumping blood through arteries, mans source of life. It’s like the viewer is holding their breath as they see this fast acting ambulance barrel down the road. This scene creates the atmosphere and mood of the poem, chaos and havoc rule the streets until the ambulance arrives. The ambulance signifies death and devastation.
2. On the literal level, what contextual significance do the following words and phrases have: mangled (line 9), “tolls once” (line 11), “terrible cargo” (line 12), “rocking, slightly rocking (line 13), deranged and composed (lines 15 and 16)?
Mangled-the people, bodies, mind and scene
Tolls once- It is the “whuiep” the siren makes to alert of the officials- The deed is done
Terrible cargo- death, injured person.-like a coffin-just a body
Rocking, slightly rocking- peaceful serenity, comforting, soothing rocking
Deranged and composed- civilians v officers. Experience v inexperience
3. Analyze the metaphors in lines 3, 18, 22, 29-30. What pattern do they create and why is it appropriate to the poem?
3-the red lights glow like blood on the ambulance
18- Washing away the blood, getting rid of a dirty deed
22- the tightening of throats due to graphic scenes. The body is reacting to the horror being witnessed
29-30- When is it are time to die? The wound is the question of when and how each one of us will die.
The mephores all deal with blood, the source of life, the pumping the pools the sight of it on the road. It is someone’s power to live spilled out of them. It is their death.
4. What is added to the theme of the poem by the metaphors in lines 20-21 and the simile in 24-27?
20-21-the light is bringing the casualties back to reality-the resurrecting of the individual lives after the fact
24-27-the promises that we make to never be a victim and then almost immediately forget the whole incident.
“Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da life goes on bra, la-la how the life goes on.” The Beatles
