Woodchucks By Maxine Kumin Analysis
After careful examination of the poem “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin, the poem serves the literal interpretation of a journey the speaker takes to kill woodchucks. The poem goes into detail about the changes the speaker experiences through the killing of these woodchucks. The speaker begins the poem by trying to explain himself and why he is trying to kill the woodchucks, then after the woodchucks eat the speaker’s food, the speaker snaps. This causes the speaker to freak out and go on a shooting rampage to kill the woodchucks. The speaker of Maxine Kumin’s “Woodchucks” begins the poem as passive only describing what everyone is doing, but then transitions to a place of power describing all the things the speaker has done personally.
At the …show more content…
The speaker describes, “Ten minutes later I dropped the mother.” (Kumin). This shows the way the speaker has changed because they are finally taking action and doing the dirty work himself. The woodchucks did not die the original way, so the speaker has to take the matter into their own hands. The speaker continues on this path and says, “Another baby next. O one-two-three / the murderer inside me rose up hard, / the hawkeye killer came on stage forthwith.” (Kumin). These lines are describing what this change has done to the speaker. The speaker has developed an obsession with killing, it becomes evident from “the murderer inside me rose up hard” (Kumin), that the speaker has been altered by the woodchucks and is now obsessed with killing. When the speaker calls himself a murderer it shows that he or she has finally accepted the role of what they are supposed to be doing. The poem ends with these two lines, “If only they’d all consented to die unseen / gassed underground the quiet Nazi way” (Kumin). This reveals the speaker has finally accepted all that he has done and is blaming the woodchucks for his or her actions. The speaker decides to blame the woodchucks for what they have done to make those actions more justifiable. At the end of the poem, it becomes clear the true meaning of the poem was to show the progression of killers. Whether people are talking about Nazis or just
At the …show more content…
The speaker describes, “Ten minutes later I dropped the mother.” (Kumin). This shows the way the speaker has changed because they are finally taking action and doing the dirty work himself. The woodchucks did not die the original way, so the speaker has to take the matter into their own hands. The speaker continues on this path and says, “Another baby next. O one-two-three / the murderer inside me rose up hard, / the hawkeye killer came on stage forthwith.” (Kumin). These lines are describing what this change has done to the speaker. The speaker has developed an obsession with killing, it becomes evident from “the murderer inside me rose up hard” (Kumin), that the speaker has been altered by the woodchucks and is now obsessed with killing. When the speaker calls himself a murderer it shows that he or she has finally accepted the role of what they are supposed to be doing. The poem ends with these two lines, “If only they’d all consented to die unseen / gassed underground the quiet Nazi way” (Kumin). This reveals the speaker has finally accepted all that he has done and is blaming the woodchucks for his or her actions. The speaker decides to blame the woodchucks for what they have done to make those actions more justifiable. At the end of the poem, it becomes clear the true meaning of the poem was to show the progression of killers. Whether people are talking about Nazis or just