Stand Alone

An Ode to the User-Friendly Pencil
Students may recognize that the irony creates a humorous tone.
• her friends had to persuade the speaker to buy a computer even though she is a writer paragraph 1
• the computer keeps breaking down paragraph 3
• the speaker prefers her pencil to the computer paragraphs 4–17

Prelude to Jumping in the River”
The speaker’s observation of a man preparing to jump into the river is used as a metaphor for making important decisions in life. Responses may note the use of extended metaphor in the poem.
• Making important decisions often requires extensive thought
“The mental preparation / takes some time” (lines 4 and 5)
• There is never certainty when making decisions
“The bottom will shift or / vanish entirely” (lines 9 and 10)
• Once a decision is made, moving forward is not always easy
“The exit, too, will be graceless” (line 21)
• Missed opportunities can result when taking too long to make a decision
“Waiting, I have missed the jump, / the perfect, reckless moment when we cannot turn back” (lines 27 and 28)
• There are some people who “take the jump” and others do not
The jumper jumps and the speaker does not

Ordinary Life
The poem demonstrates that this particular day is anything but ordinary.
• the title and line 1
• “the children went off to school / without a murmur, remembering / their books, lunches, gloves” lines 2 to 4
• “And lunch blended into naptime” line 7
• “I cleaned out kitchen cupboards, / one of those jobs that never gets done” lines 8 and 9
• “I peel carrots and potatoes without paring my thumb” line 19
• “And at the table, actual conversation, / no bickering or pokes” lines 22 and 23
• “we steal a long slow kiss” line 27
• “but this has been a day of grace / in the dead of winter” lines 31 and 32
• “a day that unwrapped itself / like an unexpected gift” lines 34 and 35

Head Cook
• She is very attractive paragraph 5
• She is “two-faced”: she ignores her cousin in some situations, but treats her with respect and as a friend/confidante in others paragraphs 6 and 41
• She briefly seeks independence paragraphs 16–36
• She seeks to avoid direct confrontation paragraphs 30 and 49
• She is manipulative: – she controls Peter – she attempts to get her way by crying – she uses her cousin as an ally paragraphs 35 and 36, 40–42
• She becomes traditional: a wife, mother and expert cook – could be seen as either a positive or a negative paragraphs 51 and 52
• She is shallow and vain, primarily concerned with her own image various references

Personal Helicon
As a child, wells fascinated the speaker:
• “…they could not keep me from wells” line 1
• “I loved the dark drop…the smells” line 3
• “I savoured the rich crash” line 6 • “Others had echoes, gave back your own call / With a clean new music in it.” lines 13 and 14
• “one / Was scaresome” lines 14 and 15
As an adult, gazing into wells parallels the self-reflection of the poet:
• “So deep you saw no reflection of it.” line 8
• “Others had echoes, gave back your own call” line 13
• “one / Was scaresome” lines 14 and 15
• entire final stanza lines 17–20
Some students will point out that wells, introspection, and Helicon are all places the poetic Muse can be found.

Contrast in B.H. Fairchild’s “The Dumka” is evident not only in the poem itself, but in the poems’ title as well. Essentially the two elderly people in the poem are sitting in their home reflecting on the “music of their lives’ (line 39). This music can be classified as a dumka since they have experianced so many contrasting events in their lives. The couple fondly remembers “the farm in twilight with piano music” (line 24) and then immediately after talks about the hardships of the Depression where “women and men [lined] main street like mannequins” (line 24) waiting for any sort of government aid. The war is contrasted with the relief of coming home safe, which is emphasized by repetition of “homecoming” (line 26). Eventually the poem ends the way it started, with the elderly couple sitting together at home, but the one small difference is he holds hand at this point. From this small gesture the reader knows despite all the bad that has happened to them, the good memories are more important and the love between them is as strong as ever.
In B.H. Fairchild’s poem, “The Dumka”, the contrasting themes of old and new, past and present, are illustrated through the usage of imagery and symbolism. The parent, “in their old age” represent a time long gone – a time of war, financial hardship and agricultural living (line 4). As they recall “breadlines in the city” and “the war,” they look back with nostalgia on “the farm in twilight with piano music” (lines 21-25). Their wistful recollections of the past are in sharp contrast with the emerging lifestyle, which renders them obsolete – a lifestyle of “green lawns” and a “vanishing neighbourhood” (lines 27, 30). The young have moved away from the neighbourhood, leaving the old clinging to the vestiges of the past that remain in the memories of coffee and newspapers” and are forgotten by most (line 31). While the elderly sit and ponder upon the past, they are aware that their lifestyle is antiquated; yet, they see it as the only thing that remains intact in the lives that they have known. Meanwhile, the forgotten old is symbolized by the phonograph, and the dust which settled upon table-tops; juxtaposed against the “mahogany gleam” of a new piano and the green lawns of suburban life, the contrast between the traditional lives of the elderly and the ostentatious desires of the young is illustrated.
A single musician can perform beautiful solos, but in time variety is craved and the magic of the solo is destroyed. The sounds of a single piano playing at twilight from the farm contrasts to the music of the lives of the old couple, for music of their life is created by a symphony consisting of everyone who has ever affected the couple, and is therefor much richer in tone and quality. During the piece composed by the couple there are numerous cresiendos, such as during the dust storms in the Thirties. As the green glow of doom changes to become a terrifying pale fire the music increases in tempo and volume, then suddenly dies down to a slower, calmer tune as the couple “smiles faintly” (19) and speaks of “the farm in twilight with piano music spiraling out across red roads and fields of maize.” (21-23). The topic changes to the “bread lines in the city” (23) and the people across the country “lining the street like mannequins” (24) as the music maintains a slow tempo and a mournful tune, then symbols crash and the musicians force a feeling of intensity through their inturments as the scene abrubtly changes to on World War Two. The terror and hardship felt during that time is then again rapidly thrown into sharp relief as thoughts turn quickly to the end of the homecoming of soldiers from Europe. This whole sequence of thoughts and events contrasts like black to white when compared to the slow and sedate pace of the earlier lines of the poem. From the homecoming the music begins a gradual ritardo, slowing down until the couple arrives where they started; done in their room “in the house in Kansas” (40).