Places
Places - meaning Summary
Fame Contrasted with Exile
The poem contrasts public celebration of a named figure with the speaker’s personal displacement and hardship. While crowds shower the celebrated person with roses and flags, the speaker describes ashes, dust, hunger and lonely journeys to battle-scarred places where others wait. It presents opposing worlds of honor and sacrifice, suggesting recognition for one alongside marginalization and endurance for another. The tone is sober and elegiac, emphasizing alienation amid communal praise.
Read Complete AnalysesROSES and gold For you today, And the flash of flying flags. I will have Ashes, Dust in my hair, Crushes of hoofs. Your name Fills the mouth Of rich man and poor. Women bring Armfuls of flowers And throw on you. I go hungry Down in dreams And loneliness, Across the rain To slashed hills Where men wait and hope for me.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.