Awaking in New York
Awaking in New York - meaning Summary
City and Private Awakening
The poem sketches a brief, early-morning scene in New York that contrasts communal sleep with an individual, tense wakefulness. While the city and its children slumber or begin their routines, the speaker awakens sharply—alert, uneasy, and solitary. The image of being an "alarm" and a "rumor of war" conveys anxiety, readiness, and a sense of intrusion as dawn arrives. The mood combines urban motion with personal unrest, suggesting the speaker feels both a part of and apart from the city as it comes to life. It appears in the collection And Still I Rise.
Read Complete AnalysesCurtains forcing their will against the wind, children sleep, exchanging dreams with seraphim. The city drags itself awake on subway straps; and I, an alarm, awake as a rumor of war, lie stretching into dawn, unasked and unheeded.
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