Woman with a Past
Woman with a Past - meaning Summary
Rupture and Reinvention
The poem sketches a woman's dramatic break with her past through a sudden, violent gesture and a few decisive words. Sandburg presents her variously as sinner, object, and kept woman, then shifts to fragile, pale images and unresolved silence. The narrative ends without explanation, leaving only whispered lips and the sense that a red, passionate episode is completed and contained within cold, white walls. The voice stresses rupture and reticence over moral judgment.
Read Complete AnalysesThere was a woman tore off a red velvet gown And slashed the white skin of her right shoulder And a crimson zigzag wrote a finger nail hurry. There was a woman spoke six short words And quit a life that was old to her For a life that was new. There was a woman swore an oath And gave hoarse whisper to a prayer And it was all over. She was a thief and a whore and a kept woman, She was a thing to be used and played with. She wore an ancient scarlet sash. The story is thin and wavering, White as a face in the first apple blossoms, White as a birch in the snow of a winter moon. The story is never told. There are white lips whisper alone. There are red lips whisper alone. In the cool of the old walls, In the white of the old walls, The red song is over.
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