The Mill by Edwin Arlington

                                                “The Mill”

The poem was written by Edwin Arlington. The poem describes the era when industrial revolution was taking place and there were machines taking the jobs of the human, and because of this lot of workers lost their job. With the fear of no job and thinking about their family situation on what are they goanna feed the kids, wife, or how are they going to take care of their parents. With this thought and no sign of light some workers took the drastic step and committed suicide.

        The poem is explained and gives us information about the things that miller wife is thinking about his husband. As after industrial revolution how the life is going to be. As she remembers hers husband last words as he left. She relives the memory lane and remembers the ambience, fragrance and warmth of the mill. Than thinking of her life without her husband, she than thought of taking her life by drawing in the dark water.

        The first stanza in the poem describes that as the wife is sitting in a chair and is recollecting the words that her husband came and whispered in her ears that there are no more millers. As due to industrial revolution it made several small professions extinct like blacksmith, cobblers, tailors, sales-man, and millers, technological advances in machinery producing mass goods, and lowering the cost of production thus replacing the job of the millers. So while her wife is recollecting the last words the tea that she made became cold and the fire has also gone out and she was waiting for him to return but it was that late that it seems yesterday.

        Than in the second stanza, as the husband did not came home as it was late it was described as it was yesterday. She also felt her presence of actually being there in the mill as she thinks of the atmosphere, the warm fragrance of the mill. And as her husband is not home she feels that he has committed suicide and she feels her husband’s body hanging on the beam of the mill. She is found to be calm and stunned as it’s hard for her to think that this might happen to her husband if he loses his job.