Week 13 Blog Post

I enjoyed the discussion we had in class on Monday about the trajectory of this book of poetry. I can see through looking at the first few poem, like Nursery for example, that the book begins with violence. As the poems develop, children are shown to have joy and compassion. This can be seen in the poem, The Syndromes: Mason's Syndrome. The children in this work are building the invisible road for all to follow. This road is one of understanding and happiness. The juxtaposition between the beginning and end of the book as further shown through "Bringing the Shovel Down" and "Again." In the first poem, the boy murders the dog, but in the second one he helps the dog eat and sets it free. Gay wants the viewer to understand that through all of the anger and sadness, there is hope for a new generation.