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This poem captures the profound effect of a mother’s romantic relationship on her daughter adulthood. The poem opens with an image of her mother falling in love with a charismatic man. The speaker then describes her mother alcoholism, being “wrist deep in red water”(9). Her beautiful mother is subjected to the man’s “lechery so solid you could build a table on it”(13,14). The man casted the family in darkness, using the mom to satisfy his own desires. She admits that when she drinks she is “too much like her”(20) mother. The poem ends with on a solemn note, her mother’s love for the man just like her drinking, “dedicated to the act itself”(26).

This poem describes the speaker’s wife trying to install a windchime. The poem opens with an image of his wife still in pajamas in the early morning “standing on the plastic ice chest”(4) struggling to reach a high crossbeam. With tools and a windchime in hand and a “nail gripped tight between her teeth” (7,8), the speaker’s wife struggles to juggle the items. The speaker then skips to after the windchime ordeal, his groggy wife with a “coffee in her hand”(13). He knows that she is disillusioned by her sleepiness after she hears the windchime make a sound that “it wasn’t making,”(16) because it was never installed. After witnessing this, the speaker states that the traditional “till death do us part,”(19) phrase is an obsolete definition of marriage. Instead, he acknowledges what he would miss about his wife if they were to part. He goes on, admiring his wife’s lovable character. The way she looked in her outfit that morning with a nail in that “little kissable mouth”(24).

“The Wild Swan at Coole” describes an older man’s annual observation of swans. The opening stanza sets a picturesque scene of autumn and upon the peaceful water “are nine-and-fifty swans,”(6). The specificity of the number swans alludes to the author's adoration for them. The swans symbolize something important to him as this has been his “nineteenth autumn,”(7) that he has observed them take flight “upon their clamorous wings,”(12). Nostalgically, the author reminisces the first time he heard the swans take flight who “trod with a lighter tread,”(18) but is saddened that “all’s changed since,”(15). He personifies the swans as lovers whose “hearts have not grown old,”(22) even if they “wander where they will,” (23) as if he envies them.  In the last stanza, the author stills the swans, going from describing them as happy and free-flying to drifting “on the still water,”(25). Even though the swans may settle in “what rushes they build,”(27), his rapture is fleeting only to “find the...

This scene embodies the struggles of Jim, Judy, and Plato. All three characters are presented in a dark, dilapidated mansion. The condition of the house and the darkness of the setting represent how each of them is lost in their dysfunctional lives. Continuing with this notion, we see Plato holding a candelabra that has three burning candles. Each flame represents a character trying to find their way through life. Their lives are rife with teenage drama and family conflict. The length of the candles symbolizes their lives. The burning candles represent the gradual but inevitable transition to adulthood. At the same time, the candles also symbolize the fragility of life. Towards the end of the film Plato is shot and killed, his candle blown out. Their struggles with the transition are evident in the roles each of them takes on: Jim and Judy a newlywed couple and Plato a real estate agent. They take on these personas as a way to cope with the expectations of adulthood.  They also ...

Chorus, Erasure 心事誰人知 Wish I Knew You, The Revitalists Just One Look, Doris Troy Hooked On A Feeling, Blue Swede Tenderness, General Public Killing Me Softly, Fugees The Beach Boys