Poetry Explication?

Question

From Seven Floor up By Sharon Olds

He is pushing a shopping cart up the ramp out of the park. He owns, in the world, only what he has there- no sink,no water, no heat. When we'd come out of the wilderness, after the week in the desert, in tents, and on the river, by canoe, and when i had my own motel-room. I cried for humble,dreading joy in the showere, I kneeled and put my arms around the cold,clean toilet. From up here, his profile looks like Che Guevara's, in the last picture, the stitches like mard on the butcher's chart. Suddenly I see that I have thought that it could not happen to me , homelessness- like death, by definition it would not happen.And he shoulders his earth, his wheeled hovel,north, the wind at his back- November, the trees coming bare in earnest. November, month of my easy birth.

DESCRIBE THE PERSONA AND SPEAKER'S TONE. DOES THE TONE CHANGE?WHOM IS THAT SPEAKER ADDRESSING?WHAT IS THE SITUATION? DESCRIBE THE SETTING, DISCUSS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.(AWARD BEST ANSWER

Answer 1

The persona is a kind of world-weary watcher, a person who prides themselves a bit on how earnest their observations are. At the beginning, their tone is one of almost admiration. Here is this homeless man who has no objects--no "things" to hold him back, or care for.

The tone changes when we get to the hotel room. It changes mainly because the focus changes for th speaker. Moving from the observation of the homeless man to the reflection on herself (I assume it is a she) creates a less-hopeful feeling. We go from admiration to self-loathing in a sentence or two.

Now, it is just me, but I think she is addressing the fetus she spontaneously aborted. Gross, but to me, that is the "profile" she is looking down upon. If you look up Che's last pic, it is the red and black image now synonymous with rebellion. It is not too much of a stretch to say that the fetus "rebelled" against the body (or vice versa).

The situation then is after this event, her sad hour in the bathroom.

The setting is in a bathroom, don't know what to say about that part. What is more interesting is the return of the homeless man to the poem. The piece comes full circle (something Olds loves to do) and we see the man again--this time more capable, less needy. The old man is a figurative version of the speaker. In the beginning, she is wishing she did not have the burdens she has, maybe it is the baby. By the end, she is able to move forward with the wind at her back, thinking of how easy it was for her to be born.

I hope that helps. I'd be curious to know what others think.