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When I read this poem I see an elderly women, a grandma or an older mother, chasing her son because he did something he was not supposed to, like break her favorite vase. In the beginning the woman has her son by the arm spanking him as he is trying to run away. She is yelling all the reasons she is right for her punishments and validating all the things he did wrong. Finally, the boy gets away and runs through the beautiful garden that homes elephant ears and zinnias where he seeks shelter. Ones the woman finds him the boy looks up and pleas with her to stop but she is fulled by anger and revenge. The boy tucks his head in between his knees while the woman grabs the nearest stick and hits him with it until it breaks signifying the beating is over. The boy runs to his room and the woman leans against the tree tired from the chase and beating.

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Alliteration-
"The old women across the way Is whipping the boy again" - The W's repeat three times in this line.
" elephant ears"- The E's repeat.
"She strikes and strikes the shrilling circling "- The S's repeat three times.
"Well, it is over now, it is over"

Assonance-
"Is whipping the boy again And shouting to the neighborhood"
- "ing" repeat in whipping and shouting.
"shrilling circling "- The "Ing" repeat in both words.
"women across the way
Is whipping the boy again
And shouting to the neighborhood Her goodness and his wrongs. "- The "O" sound in Women repeats in neighborhood and goodness.

Images/ Ideas-
The whipping/abuse repeats- mentioned at least twice.
Tension in the story repeats throughout.
Pain/ suffering continues throughout the poem.
Anger is a driving force for this poem.

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The old women 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 shrilling 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 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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This poem is written in "Free Verse".
Ex: " Is whipping the boy again"- Should have three Iambs to contain a rhyme scheme but only contains two.
" And the boy sobs in his room, "- This line contains a trimeter and starts out with an anapest: a metrical foot consisting of two short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed syllable.
This poem does not have a rhyme scheme because it does not have any pattern. There is however an internal rhyme which means words within the same line have some rhyme.
Ex: "women across the way
Is whipping the boy again
And shouting to the neighborhood Her goodness and his wrongs."- The "O" sound in women repeats in neighborhood and goodness.

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" Her goodness and his wrongs"- The gender is contrasted and so is their characteristics of good and bad.
" While she in spite of crippling fat Pursues and corners him." - Crippling and pursues contrast because crippling is a handicap that makes it hard to walk where as pursues means to chase after.
" My head gripped in bony vise Of knees, the writhing struggle To wrench free, the blows that hateful" - Vise, writhing, and wrench contrast because a vise is used to hold something steady while writhing and wrench are a motion meant to free something.
" A tree, exhausted, purged Avenged in part for lifelong hidings She had to bear."- Purged is to rid yourself of a negative quality where bear is to hold onto something.

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Zinnias- an American plant of the daisy family, which is widely cultivated for its bright showy flowers.
Crippling- causing a person to become unable to walk or move properly
Pursues- follow (someone or something) in order to catch or attack them:
Shrilling- (of a voice or sound) high-pitched and piercing:
Vise- a metal tool with movable jaws that are used to hold an object firmly in place while work is done on it, typically attached to a workbench.
Writhing- making twisting, squirming movements or contortions of the body:
Wrench- pull or twist (someone or something) suddenly and violently:
Muttering- a privately expressed complaint or expression of dissatisfaction:
Purged- rid (someone or something) of an unwanted quality, condition, or feeling
Bear- (of a person) carry:
* Definitions from https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

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My first memory that comes to me when I read this was my mother when I was a child. She was very short tempered and sometimes would spank our behinds but it was very rarely. I was a horrible child and only got a spanking once or twice my entire life.

My second memory was the pear tree that sat on the right side of our house. We actually had two but this one was my favorite. When the pears would fall, we would have thousands of moths and butterfly's come and eat from the rotting fruit. I used to run close to the tree to see them all scatter at once.

The last memory I had was when my Aunt Christie came to the house. She was very sick from her lifestyle choices. She was an alcoholic, but still tried to keep up with all of us. One day she was on the tire swing under my pear tree and could not get off. I had to rush to get my mother's help. That is when I realized for the first time how bad off she was.

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When I read this I would think the author is educated because he used descriptive words such as purged, shrilling, crippling fat, wrench free, etc. If the speaker was not educated he would have used simpler words such as rid of, screaming, obese, squirming free, etc. I feel as if the speaker experiences many forms of anger, depressions, and pain because of the way he writes. He says " Words could bring, the face I No longer knew or loved.... Well, is is over now, it is over, And the boy sobs in his room" which makes me think of pain and a deep rooted depression. My concern in this poem is obviously the boys safety. There are very many cases where children are abused at home and killed by the people they thought loved them most. Or they experience such a depression where they end their suffering themselves. I believe this woman has a history of abuse because like most abusive people she tries to validate her actions instead of explaining why they are not right.

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I think this poem really opened my eyes up to the abuse children face at home from people who are to love them the most. I am a criminal justice major so I could go on and on about cases where a child is neglected, abuses, and sometimes discarded as if they were nothing. Due to the media, we see these things more heavily now and think it's just bad in recent years but Robert Hayden made me see this has always been an issue. This poem made me think about how I want to raise my daughter. How I do not want her to see the bad in the world or ever have experience this kind of pain. I do not ever want to get angry at my child like this woman did to this boy. I have always believed that an adult should never lay a hand on a child and I still believe that. There are other ways of punishing children that do not cause them physical harm or mental harm. You could put them in time out or take away privileges but you should never put your hands on a child of any age.

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" 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"
I think this stanza is a very intense one but I like it for a few reasons. I like it because the boy if finally free from the woman. I also like it because I have felt this feeling before. I have never been beat like this boy has been but I have been emotionally abused by an old ex who I thought I would be with for the rest of my life. When he would come home and lie to my face about cheating or where he had been I slowly lost all love for him. The face I loved and knew every freckle, every smile line, every hair follicle, started to become someone I no longer loved or wanted to wake up to.