Posted by Yana on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 2:58pm.
I cannot find that poem online. It must be under copyright -- or can you supply the text?
I found this mention of it. Click on Souster at the top to find the review.
http://lrc.reviewcanada.ca/index.php?page=canada-s-most-memorable-poems-the-lrc-contributors-list---part-2#souster
Lake Of Bays-
"Well, I'm not chicken..."
that skinny ten-year old girl
balance on the crazy-high railing
of the Dorset bridge:
suddenly let go
down
fifty feet into the water.
"That one will never grow up
to be a lady," my mother said
as we walk away,
but I'll remember
her brown body dropping like a stone
long after I've forgotten
many many ladies....
Thanks for posting the poem.
Study the last two stanzas and the commentary I recommended. What do you think the poem means?
Yes, I've read that before. However, I understand that this girl is jumping from a 50 ft bridge..then I don't understand why this mother is so calm. I mean, does this mean that this girl just killed herself and this women just walked by?
You miss the point of the last line...
I remember a girl in my high school homeroom who killed herself because she was pregnant. That has been fifty years ago, and frankly, I have forgotten nearly all the others in my class.
Does that help you?
Oooo..yes, I see what you are saying.
Ok..and here is another thing..I need to compare mother and this boy( like their two views). I don't quite understand this. I mean yes, the mother just walked by and didn't really pay much attention to this girl, and they boy memorized her for his whole life..is there anything else?
Perhaps the mother is understating her feelings. Adults tend to watch children grow and mature and visualize them as future adults. The boy, presumably younger, is hit harder by this death -- much the way Bob Pursley has never forgotten his high school classmate.
The poem expresses two different ways of looking at the death of a young person.
Ok, thank you soooo much.You've helped me a lot, but you see I need to use block comparison arrangement..how do I do that? I need to have more then 4 differences between them.
You're very welcome.
Here's a site on block comparison.
http://www.eslbee.com/compcont.htm
The mother:
1. is older
2. mourns the person that could have been
3. walks away
4. impersonalizes the victim be calling her "that one."
5. may not be expressing all of her feelings
Now -- what can you explain about the boy?
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