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Reflecting on decisions made in life.

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I believe the value of this poem to me and to the world is the problem with deflection. The woman beats and beats the poor boy, who is said to have done "wrong". As you read, you learn that the woman is burdened by emotional turmoil she directs toward the child. He, in fact, has done no wrong. Mental health and emotional turmoil are both things that many people push to the back of their minds and into a box, and might not realize who and what they are taking things out on. It is important to admit ones problems, seek help, or fix them. Many people believe that seeking help is taboo or makes them feel "weird" or "different". However, not resolving these issues leads to exactly what we see here in this poem.

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The old woman across the way
is whipping the boy again
and shouting to the neighborhood
her goodness and his wrongs.

Wildly he crashes through elephant ears,
pleads in dusty zinnias,
while she in spite of crippling fat
pursues and corners him.

She strikes and strikes the shrilly circling
boy till the stick breaks
in her hand. His tears are rainy weather
to woundlike memories:

My head gripped in bony vise
of knees, the writhing struggle
to wrench free, the blows, the fear
worse than blows that hateful

Words could bring, the face that I
no longer knew or loved . . .
Well, it is over now, it is over,
and the boy sobs in his room,

And the woman leans muttering against
a tree, exhausted, purged--
avenged in part for lifelong hidings
she has had to bear.

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I believe that the speaker is most definitely educated. Beyond word choice, the speaker gives a sense of both sides. The speaker goes beyond what the reader can externally see, and into the emotional aspect which leads me to the conclusion that the speaker is most definitely educated. Socially, I believe he was what you and I would consider to be "average" or "normal" and also an introvert. Someone who is observant and is mindful to himself. I believe that his history is tarnished by something in his childhood, making him/her relate to both the child and the woman and seeing through to their roots, perhaps connecting with them through the same emotional trauma. The concerns within the speaker I believe truly lie within the boys well being, considering the way he/she speaks about the beating and his tears.

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1. One memory I have here is with the zinnias. One time, My cousin was learning to ride his bike and flew off into the garden of flowers in my front yard, destroying them. Dirt was everywhere.

2. I interpreted the stick in this poem to be the woman cane, so one memory that comes to mind is when my grandma broke her cane. She actually set it down outside, forgot about it, and then ran it over. I know you're wondering why it was outside- I couldn't tell you, old people right?

3. Lastly, One memory i have is being at this little lake by my house. I would go there every time I
needed to think or reflect upon my life, just like the woman does in the last stanza.

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1st stanza-
Here, I imagine myself peeking through a window while an old woman, perhaps a grandmother, is yelling and beating her boy outside of her house. I imagine it to be common, and all the neighbors know about it and peak out of their blinds as well.

2nd stanza- I see the Zinnias here especially, and the boy getting smacked, tumbling him right into them. I imagine the dirt going everywhere and the cringe of the pedals being crushed. All while the boy is down, the old woman comes closer because she isn't finished yet, carrying herself further out of the house and into the yard.

3rd stanza- She beats the boy again, yet this time with perhaps a cane that breaks and upon the snap the boy begins to cry due to the sudden realization of the seriousness and pain of it all. The breaking point. I can see his face full of anger and red as a cherry while the woman tells him go back inside before anyone sees.

4th stanza- I imagine the emotional trauma here rather than the blows and blows that are mentioned. He is broken now, he hangs himself outside of his body. It is worse than anything hateful or mean, he is just broken now.

5th stanza- I imagine the silence here. The words that went unspoken and the boy in his room alone. With nothing to think about other than the hurt that lies in his heart rather than his bones.

6th stanza- And now I see the woman outside, reflecting on her actions. Lining against the tree because she broke her cane and used her energy. I can see the silence here too. Her atonal trauma and turmoil is prominent, and I think she understands the things that she does all while being in denial.

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"And the woman leans muttering against a tree, exhausted, purged--avenged in part for lifelong hidings she has had to bear."

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"the blows, the fear
worse than blows that hateful"
Blows repeats twice.

"The old woman across the way
is whipping the boy again...while she in spite of crippling fat
pursues and corners him....She strikes and strikes..." This image echoes throughout the poem. The image of the old lady whipping and hitting the boy in different instances.

"Well, it is over now, it is over..."
it is over echoes twice.

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"her goodness and his wrongs"

The contrast between the greatness of the woman in justifying her beating of the so called wronging and juvenile qualities of the boy.

"My head gripped in bony vise
of knees, the writhing struggle
to wrench free, the blows, the fear"

Vise is to be defined as assisting in holding something together, however in this instance its being contrasted against writhing and wrench which tear down said object or thing.

"worse than blows that hateful
a tree, exhausted, purged--
avenged in part for lifelong hidings she has had to bear."

Purging is to get rid of or remove, however the lady bears this pain and keep it inside, therefor contrasting one another.

"She strikes and strikes the shrilly circling
boy till the stick breaks
in her hand...And the woman leans muttering against
a tree, exhausted, purged--"
At the beginning of the poem, the woman is strong in hate and is beating the boy pretty bad, hence the repetition throughout the poem and descriptive beating scenes, yet at the end she lays exhausted and painted in a light to which perhaps the reader was made to sympathize with her and understand.

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Assonance & Alliteration

"She strikes and strikes the
shrilly circling boy..." The S Aliterates in this sense here.

"the writhing struggle
to wrench free..." The "Wr" alliterates here among the words withering and wrench.

"shouting to the neighborhood
her goodness and his wrongs" Here is an assonance, the "ou" and "oo" among,  "shouting" "neighborhood",  "goodness", and "Wrongs"

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Shrilly- High pitched in piercing tone or sound.
Writhing- To make continual twisting, squirming movements or contortions to the body
Wrench- A sudden violent twist or pull

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"The Whipping" is written in free verse entirely. After reading the poem, a reader can see that there is not any specific pattern throughout the poem. However, occasionally there is a limping rhyme readers can see here displayed in stanza 4:

"My head gripped in bony vise
of knees, the writhing struggle
to wrench free, the blows, the fear worse than blows that hateful"

Short lines made the poem flow, there was a natural rhythm.