Mining+in+Kildeer+Alley,+Dabney+Stuart


 * The Mining in Killdeer Alley By Dabney Stuwart**

//__The Mining in Killdeer Alley__// is the poem I chose to read. This poem is by Dabney Stuwart(as written above), and it was wriiten for someone named Nathan. When I chose this poem, I didn't realize that it was going to be something I would actually enjoy. I like the parts when the lines are seperated. Because it gives it a sense of...mystery kind of.

//"One, and then another, they settled before me ...............like flakes of air, Halfway up the hill, their splayed toes sketching Shadows, the grass tuftd, gravel, merging;"//

This quote is from the very first stanza of the poem, //The Mining in Killdeer Alley.// This poem is set up in a very particular way. It is only two stanzas and one line long. The stanzas are like split up. Part is at the very end of the second stanza. Like below: .......................................................//"Thier russet throats, The sun shattered in the gravel, ...............................................the gray veins Of his impeccable wrist, .......................................Lord, for the life of me."//

This is very different to me. Because most poems are all lined up on either the right or left side of the paper. But to have some lined up on the right and other liens indented at random, is just cool, the way the lines are seperated from the rest of the line or sentence but in a way that still makes them together. There is also no rhyme scheme in this poem. There is not any rhyme in the first stanza except for the accidental or coincidental rhyme. Like below:

//"Halfway up the hill, their splayed toes sketching Shadows, the grass tuftd, gravel, merging;"//

This is kind of obvious that this was not intentional. Because there is no other -ing ending word in the end of the line in the beggining of the first stanza, like it is above. Also there isn't any rhyme in the second or third stanzas. In end of the second stanza you can kind of see that there is not any room or space for rhyme by the way it is set up:

//"So that my father, who we thought dying, Could see him, we carried his newborn grandson Up the back stairs of the hospital. The light was broken All over the blanket, and our child swam in his glasses With pieces of that broken light."//

This section of the second stanza is set up like this in a way which like refuses to have rhyme(in my opinion). Which is okay. Because a poem like this is complete without the rhyming.

There is some personification in the first stanza. The seventh line:

//"And the pronouns confused, and they shied and took fight"//

Pronouns are not realistic. They can't be confused, nor can they take fight. The imagery in this poem is outstanding. It has so much. And with all the different types of imagery. The first one is in the first stanza, in the second line:

//"Halfway up the hill, their splayed toes sketching Shadows, the grass tufts, gravel, merging; They came downfrom their marvelous fluency To wobble on dumb stilts"//

When I read this, I could see the toes sketching and the gravel merging, and all of the objects wobbling down on stilts. The second image is also in the first stanza:

//"To wobble on dumb stilts Like earthbound creatures, hinded by stangeness. The shadows were blue and voluminous, and their toes lost"//

The earthbound creatures send shivers up my spine whenever i come across that line. I can't imagine why Mr.Stuwart would write about those bugs. But whatever he needs to do the make the poem come....**ALIVE!** There is more imagery throughout the story. In every other line to me. There is always something to take in, whether it is imagery or personification or the rhyming(or non-rhyming in this case) or anything else you happen to see in a poem, or this poem. But this is a very unique and terrific poem and I hope you will will enjoy it, or have already had the privledge to enjoy and love it.

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