Ambulances Analysis

Closed like confessionals, they thread
Loud noons of cities, giving back
None of the glances they absorb.
Light glossy grey, arms on a plaque,
They come to rest at any kerb:
All streets in time are visited.

Then children strewn on steps or road,
Or women coming from the shops
Past smells of different dinners, see
A wild white face that overtops
Red stretcher-blankets momently
As it is carried in and stowed,

And sense the solving emptiness
That lies just under all we do,
And for a second get it whole,
So permanent and blank and true.
The fastened doors recede. Poor soul,
They whisper at their own distress;

For borne away in deadened air
May go the sudden shut of loss
Round something nearly at an end,
And what cohered in it across
The years, the unique random blend
Of families and fashions, there

At last begin to loosen. Far
From the exchange of love to lie
Unreachable insided a room
The trafic parts to let go by
Brings closer what is left to come,
And dulls to distance all we are.


Submitted by paul mckenzie

.: :.

I think, ambulances are a metaphor for the inevitable fate, death, that meets us all, further emphasized by the line "they come to rest at any kerb".

The horrific descriptions of "wild white face" against the "red" blankets, portray the contrasting colours of red and white- skin/ bones and blood, emphasizing the horrors of death, of decaying flesh.
The 'it' as to what is being carried away dehumanizes the patient, after death, our body is a mere object.
It is important to note that us saying 'Poor soul' symbolizes our selfish retreat into our own problems as we self pity ourselves in the ambulances.
Bla bla bla, I hate this poem.

| Posted on 2009-06-09 | by a guest

.: :.

Ambulances- I think that ambulances is more of a symbolic poem. I believe that the ambulance symbolises illness, disease and death. It says in the first stanza “all streets in time are visited”. This is a very realistic statement because an ambulance will eventually come to every street, as will illness disease and death.

| Posted on 2009-02-01 | by a guest