Apology
Apology - meaning Summary
Compassion for Overlooked People
The speaker asks why he writes and answers that the sight of marginalized people moves him. He is drawn to the weary, working women returning home and notices their dignified, weathered faces. He also acknowledges the faces of prominent citizens but says they affect him differently. The poem frames poetic impulse as a response to social contrast, finding beauty and ethical attention in neglected, ordinary lives.
Read Complete AnalysesWhy do I write today? The beauty of the terrible faces of our nonentites stirs me to it: colored women day workers— old and experienced— returning home at dusk in cast off clothing faces like old Florentine oak. Also the set pieces of your faces stir me— leading citizens— but not in the same way.
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