Week 3- "The Red Wheelbarrow"

 This poem and I have a history; a few months ago this particular poem was the bane of my existence, and that's putting it lightly. We were asked to analyze this poem in my AP Literature class towards the end of the year. We were asked to try to figure out what it meant. The second I laid eyes on it, a sense of dread washed over me. When I actually read the words, I snapped. No part of me could figure it out, I might have started to panic, what did this cryptic wheelbarrow want from me? Why had I been cursed to figure out why these chickens were near a wheel barrow that was covered in rain and would probably rust if left out for too long?
  I wish I could say that this is an exaggeration of my actual thought process, however I can't. In fact, I might have been a bit more outraged about it all. I can, however, say that this poem doesn't cause me nearly as much torment anymore. Proudly, I stand before you all a changed woman, one who has viewed wheelbarrows and isn't nearly as enraged by them anymore.
  This poem, I believe, is meant to give the reader a changing perspective. Upon first reading, you see the image in steps. First, a "red wheel" is introduced, however the image is quickly changed once the reader sees the word "barrow", thus the reader changes the image in their head. A red wheelbarrow. Next the reader is introduced to a new aspect, the wheelbarrow is "glazed with rain water", so the image in mind must shift again to make sense of the new development. Perhaps the ground on which the wheelbarrow is sat has become darker, as if rain has recently showered the area. The image is only fully developed upon reading the last stanza that introduces "the white chickens", which, in my head at least, stand out brighter than the wheelbarrow itself, seeing as white is a shocking contrast to the dark, rain-soaked earth and the red wheelbarrow. This is a poem that not only plays on imagery, it plays on the readers ability to imagine all of the different elements using various perspectives in order to see the portrait in its entirety.