I like the purpose of this poem, that people may encounter each other everyday but are not present enough to really know or appreciate what is going on around them. Although, reading the length of it doesn't really excite me. It sounds like a droning on of a description of a normal street, where the same people are every day, living dull lives. The meaning of the poem conveys a much more important idea than the simple language describes. I think the image tells the story of the poem accurately, too accurately and it becomes boring. I find an image more stimulating when it accents the words from a different perspective to bring deeper meaning to them. I must say however, I think the first two lines are a better poem than the rest of it all together. With the first two lines, my mind goes beyond the image.
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Balthus, The Street (1933) |
