You sullen pig of a man
you force me into the mud
with your stinking ash-cart!
Brother!
--if we were rich
we'd stick out chests out
and hold our heads high!
It is dreams that have destroyed us.
There is no more pride
in horses or in rein holding.
We sit hunched together brooding
our fate.
Well--
all things turn bitter in the end
whether you choose the right or
the left way
and--
dreams are not a bad thing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The overall message is that the speaker is hoping to be rich. He thinks if he and brother become rich, they would have power to do what they want to do. The second stanza said “ If we were rich”, the word “if” shows that they were not rich but hoping to be rich. The third stanza said “It is dreams that have destroyed us”. I feel that is telling us the speaker was dreaming to be rich over and over. The last stanza, I think is telling us whether or not the dream will become true, but we all still have the right to have a dream.
ReplyDeleteThe author of this poem seems to not have pride on his economical situation and wishes that one day he will have the wealth he desires. Because as he shows it in stanza 2, he says that if he was rich with his brother they would “stick out chests out/ and hold our heads high!”, and it demonstrates the reader that if they had wealth they would be proud of what they had. Apparently, he seems to be a servant because he says that they would have their heads high and it shows that when the boss says something has to be done, they have to do it. Also, he says that they have to do something about it, but he, at the end, does not take action to pursue that dream and says that things turn out bitter at the end no matter what one does, but that it is not bad to dream of doing something even if one does not take action. It gives the reader a hopeless mood because even if they try something to change their lifestyle they can’t accomplish it.
ReplyDeleteLike the people above me have commented, the speaker is poor. Even though, he's poor now, he realizes that in the end, everyone ends up the same. This is shown through the last stanza when he says "Well--/all things turn bitter in the end/whether you choose the right or/the left way." Even though he sees that in the end, the same thing happens to the rich and the poor, he realizes that dreams are important. This is shown through the last line "dreams are not a bad thing." His dream is to be rich and he's going to have that dream until he is dead.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all three of my peers. The speaker is of lower class and most probably had little or no money at all. Throughout the entire poem, the speaker is pretty much dreaming. He is speaking of his dreams but in another perspective. William Carlos Williams says that "if he were rich" he would do many things, yet he knows that he doesn't have that. The speaker also says that whether anyone chooses either path, they will end up in the same destination. He believes strongly in dreaming. Although he doesn't have what he's dreaming about, he knows that he will end up in the same place as the rich.This way he doesn't really worry about being poor. Williams is saying that we should all dream because it doesn't hurt anyone and we're not loosing anything.
ReplyDeleteThe speaker does in fact come from a poor background but as lower class all they can do is dream but everyone has the right to do so there is nothing wrong in dreaming.In the poem the speaker is mocking the upper class on there arrogant pride of being wealthy which,he means by "we'd stick our chests out and hold our heads high".In the fourth stanza the speaker is saying that in reality there is no pride becuase all of us ponder about our destiny.The last stanza is indicating that either rich or poor we all suffer the same conclusion.
ReplyDelete