modern poems

journal of a dissapointed man themes

class, masculinity, dissapointment, observation, identity, relationships, journey

what happens

A first-person intellectual narrator stands on a pier, silently watching a group of manual laborers struggle to drive a heavy wooden support pile into the water using chains, pulleys, and cranes.

Despite their physical strength and heavy equipment, the men run into an obscure, unsolved obstacle.

Instead of a dramatic climax, the men simply grow tired, lose interest, and walk away one by one, leaving the wooden pile suspended uselessly in mid-air. [1, 2, 3]

5 key quotes

‘a wooden pile, a massive affair swinging’

‘every one of the monsters’

‘a wooden pile, a massive affair swinging’ analysis

observation

The speaker projects his own internal states and assumptions onto the workmen, eventually realizing he cannot truly know or share their inner experience. It also functions as a subtle metaphor for writer's block or the creative inability to finish a work of art.