Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?
- As we move into the poem's third stanza we see that this has… yeah, absolutely nothing in common with stanzas 1 or 2. Sure, it's a question. It's even a question in the same poem. But there are no plants here whatsoever.
- In fact, we get something that's totally unnatural: a car. And apparently this is a criminal car (Christine?) that likes to steal stuff. But hey, at least it's a car with a conscience. This car apparently has "regrets" about all its bad behavior.
- Let's back up and try to see just what this third question is driving at (see what we did there?). What, if anything, might a car be capable of stealing? Well, in a way we could say that cars—because they rely on gasoline to run—might "steal" fossil fuels from the Earth. After all, we're not digging for oil because it's a fun way to pass the time.
- And yet, the poem hands us another helping of personification when it tells us that this car—whatever it's been stealing—feels bad about what it's done.
- Of course, cars can't really feel one way or another—about anything (sorry Herbie. And yet, our speaker is sure that they can.
- More than that, the speaker is convinced that some people out there can actually hear these cars expressing their guilty consciences. He just wants to know who those folks are.
- The poem is presenting us with another layer cake here. This time, it's not a question of reality (what's on the surface and what lies beneath). It's a question of sympathy. To think of cars as thieves, we have to first think of oil (let's say) as something that can be stolen. So we have to sympathize with Earth and value her resources.
- We also have to sympathize with cars, since they're just doing what they're designed to do. They don't run on gas because they especially hate our planet, right?
- Finally, you have to imagine that there are people out there who can sympathize with the cars who, in turn, are sympathizing with Earth. As a result, there's a whole chain of connection here that is totally beyond the realm of our normal realities when we fill up at the pump.
- At yet, the speaker wants us to point out those people who can make such connections. Any nominees?