Auto Wreck Critical Analysis

Shapiro wants his readers to vividly picture the accident as if he/she was there to see it. He uses profound imagery words and phrases to do so. “Stretchers are laid out, the mangled lifted / And stowed into the little hospital” (9-10). The reader can easily and distinctly visualize the injured people being placed onto the stretchers and loaded into the back of ambulance, a scene that many are familiar with

Through the use of metaphors and similes, Shapiro is able to swing the mood of the poem into a dark, pessimistic view of death. In the line, “Pulsing out red light like an artery” (3), the author references to a strong, beating heart, and subsequently life. This life starts to seem fragile a few lines later, “And stowed into the little hospital” (10). This metaphor gives rise to the idea that life is delicate and death may only be around the block. Reading deeper, one can find, “Our throats were tight as tourniquets” (22), to be an indication of the decreasing morale of the bystanders and Shapiro as well. It is at this point when the shock of the wreck is starting to set in and his mood becomes distinctly pessimistic and fearful.

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Some topics in this essay:
Karl Shapiro, , karl shapiro, stowed little hospital”, “auto wreck”, shapiro able, figurative language, stowed little, little hospital”, theme death,