Ethics

This poem was told through 1st person point of view and written with a rhythm of trochaic pentameter. By writing this story using free verse and open lines, the author was able to create a flow of words that made it easy to read. I thought that the use of free verse was symbolic of how quickly life goes by; all of the sudden the speaker went from a young student to a woman who was looking at a Rembrandt painting in a museum. The last lines of the poem represent the theme to me, "I know now that woman and painting and season are almost one and all beyond saving by children." This points out that nothing can every truly be saved; everything will be gone someday. Also this could just be a literal statement that children couldn't save the painting or the woman, she is now just realizing this answer because she is maturing. The description of the students as "Restless on hard chairs" is a great example of concrete imagery, I can just imagine them. The carelessness and fickleness of youth is pointed out in the lines, "We'd opt one year for life, the next for art and always half-heartedly."