Summary Of The Truth By Tony Hoagland

Through Tony Hoagland’s poem, “The Truth,” the speaker reaches the conclusion and becomes satisfied with the idea that he is “in the land of the unfinished,” despite his many efforts “to get inside.” In the initial three stanzas, he describes the image of the wasps “shrunken to death” and “perishing” is reoccuring. In the fourth stanza, he analyzes the role of the wasps in a macro perspective. In the last four stanza, he draws a parallel with his actions of “trying again and again/ to get inside” to the wasp’s actions of “making the same effort again and again. However, by the last stanza, the speaker has come to terms with the idea that he will remain in the “land of the unfinished.” The speaker reveals the imagery of the wasps first; therefore,