Explication Of "Auto Wreck"

Stanza 1 opens at the scene of an automobile accident. It describes the ambulance taking

the body's and putting them on stretchers and going to the hospital. This stanza has a lot of

alliteration suggesting the urgency of the situation; "Its quick soft silver bell beating, beating.(1)"

Stanza 1 starts the poem in a very grim setting. The doors of the ambulance represent death.

When the ambulance arrives "The doors leap open" (8), the reader sees the decline of life when

the doors close; "And the ambulance with its terrible cargo/ Rocking, slightly rocking, moves

away,/ As the doors, an afterthought, are closed (12-14).

The onlookers of the accident wonder in a "deranged" (15) state of mind. Stanza 2

focuses on the "cops" (15) at the scene. The police officers complete the many jobs involved in

dealing with an automobile accident. One cleans the streets, one takes notes, and one "Hangs

lanterns on the wrecks that cling (20)." Police officers deal with this everyday, it is their job.

Compared to the onlookers who seem in shock they are "composed"(16).

Starting off with a simile describing the onlookers defines the transformation from shock

to recovery; "Our throats were tight as tourniquets (22)."The people joke about the accident to

take away the seriousness of the accident they observe; "We speak with sickly smiles and warn/