Tuesday 9:00am.

Tuesday 9:00am

By Denver Butson

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/147.html

            The title of this poem seems to describe what each Tuesday is like for someone(s).  After reading the poem, I found that the title describes the day and time at which a particularly curious event takes place affecting four or so people at a bus stop. 

I know that the speaker of the poem has some kind of third person view, but I don’t know who the person actually is.  I think (s)he is trying to explain or demonstrate the way people are lost in their own problems. 

In this poem, each person at the bus stop is theoretically going through some kind of pain: the man is on fire, the woman is freezing, and the other woman is drowning.  Even the bus driver is “tortured by visions”.  The setting is at a bus stop, and I believe it is crucial to the poem because it shows that the people probably are strangers and probably are metaphorically caught up in their own lives and worries.

            There isn’t any rhyme to this poem.  It is simply a free verse, and is has quite a lot of the characteristics of a narrative poem.  I really like how the poem has such a nonchalant tone.  The speaker is almost apathetic as (s)he describes the horrifying scene taking place.  Maybe the speaker is using an apathetic tone to show that (s)he is in their own little world, as well.  This would contribute to the overarching theme throughout the poem. 

            I also have another theory about the poem’s meaning.  (This poem was a very tough one to actually find meaning to).  The speaker might be trying to show the way people block each other out.  For example, the second stanza says, “wants to mention it to him/that he is burning/but she is drowning,” and the third stanza says, “She tries to stand near the man/who is on fire…but the woman who is freezing to death/has trouble moving/with blocks of ice on her feet.”  Both of these lines in the poem show how the three people at the bus stop are trying to interact, but can’t.  I think the speaker is maybe trying to exemplify the tenseness or awkwardness between strangers. 

            This poem was so interesting to me.  I think the fact that the poem was written so nonchalantly about frightening things really got my attention.  It’s a very interesting poem, indeed.  I still have absolutely no idea what the theme is – I only have my two theories, which I’m still questioning myself.