Linda Pastan
1 When I taught you
3 a bicycle, loping along4 beside you
5 as you wobbled away
6 on two round wheels,
7 my own mouth rounding
8 in surprise when you pulled
9 ahead down the curved
10 path of the park,
11 I kept waiting
12 for the thud of your crash as I
13 sprinted to catch up,
14 while you grew
15 smaller, more breakable
16 with distance,
17 pumping, pumping
18 for your life, screaming
19 with laughter,
20 the hair flapping
21 behind you like a
22 handkerchief waving
23 goodbye.
After reading this poem in class, I realized how the meaning of the poem changes drastically given the different lines. What I interpreted as a drunken car ride ended up to be a memory of a childhood experience, the change in interpretations occurring through the addition of a few more lines.
Given lines 11-18, I interpreted the tone of the poem as very emotional and threatening. It didn't cross my mind that this could be a poem about a bike ride. When I read "pumping, pumping / for your life, screaming" I imagined a frantic individual, unable to control the inevitable "thud of [a] crash" of another. I couldn't decide whether to associate "screaming" with the individual sprinting or the one growing "more breakable with distance," and in addition, I didn't know whether this being about to crash was another individual or perhaps a fallen object.
When lines 5-10 were added, I was given more visual imagery of the setting. I pictured a drunk driver riding a motorcycle away from the narrator, possibly a family member, friend, or even a stranger, struggling to catch up before an accident were to occur. This led the description of "more breakable with distance" see much more threatening and violent, as if the "thud of [the] crash" would lead to the permanent damage of the individual.
After lines 1-4 and 19-20 were included, it became clear that this was not a scene of an approaching accident. It was revealed to be memory of a guardian teaching a child how to ride a bike. The terrifying "screaming" instead became screams of joy and glee "with laughter", and the threatening tone transformed to fondness for the past. The impending accident was no longer one that threatened the individual's life, and the individual's growing "more breakable with distance" emphasized his or her small size rather than the danger of the situation.
When the last three lines were given, the poem read as a situation in which a child was leaving home. The child's ability to ride a bike acted as his or her step into independence, capable of riding away by him- or herself without the help of the parent. Because the path is curved, the parent will soon be unable to see the child riding away, the distance between the two increasing steadily. As a result, the hair waves "like a handkerchief waving goodbye", the first moment during which the parent realizes the child will soon grow up and leave. When I learned the title, the memory is given an emotional tone once more, though not for the life-threatening hypothesis of before.
Through this activity, I learned how significant each line works towards creating meaning for the poem. Even more, my interpretation of the poem's tone had shifted drastically with just the single word "laughter." This provides insight as to how deeply I need to analyze the choices of words and lines within a poem as well as how they contribute to the poem as a whole.
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