Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Who do you think the characters in this poem are, and what is their relationship to each other? Is the "you" mentioned different from the women in the first stanza? Which parts of the poem give you your ideas?
- What do you think line 10, "a mere nothing," is referring to? Why do you think so?
- How is the title supported by the rest of the poem?
- How is your reading of this poem affected by considering the time period in which the poem was written (World War I, a.k.a. "the first global bummer of the twentieth century")?