280. The Beating

In the description, while the beating is taking place the speaker is going through pain and the way this part of the poem is written conveys this to the audience. The lines don’t seem to flow as much as the end of the poem and often times the last word of a thought is placed in the next line. The way that each line is broken up in the first parts of the poem makes it feel as if the beating were taking place right then. It almost feels like each thought is being interrupted by the blows being described.

This form of writing stops in the last two stanzas. In these last stanzas, his thoughts are more together and the poem has a better rhythm and flows more. The pain is gone so he can think more clearly and poem more poetic, but the hospital is still described as a scary place where he is caged in and surrounded. He sees shapes and thinks they are going to beat him again. That is why he says “no blow!” The italics show that those are his words. Everything in the hospital that normaly is described as good, is viewed as a negative thing to the speaker. The white room "tortures" his eyes, and he sees his cast/splint as being "caged in wood". The fear being expressed in this second to last stanza shows how the beating still will have a lasting effect on the victim.

"My eyes burst closed"- This is a much stronger way of just saying I shut my eyes. The author uses this oxy moron to get a better effect and it shows the intensity of the blows and pain he is in. His eyes are now closed so does not know what is really going on, but can still describe what he is feeling. When he says, "I was flying.", it is how he feels, when he is being helped and brought into a hospital.

The poem shows such a vivid description from the speaker of the beating that while reading the poem, I could feel the pain he was going through. He counts the number of times he is hit, and remembers each and every one distinctly. It shows how much effect this has had on him and how he will not forget it. The way the author conveys the speaker’s feelings to the reader is not by describing as much of a visual image, but by focusing mainly on the sense of touch and feel from the speaker. The author uses descriptions such as, "Flood of senses across the ribs.." and "beat my skull against my/Brain".