Weight

Usually, to "walk all over someone" is just a figure of speech, but the speaker of the poem is actually being walked on. In our reading of the poem, the speaker is represented as either being the wood floor, as being below the wood floor, or as being in a coffin that rests on the floor. The language of creaking and breaking earlier in the poem puts us on notice that the floor isn't exactly safe. Sure enough, one of the planks breaks, and the speaker goes tumbling, tumbling down.

• Lines 3-4: These lines introduce the idea that the speaker is being "walked on."
• Line 10: The mourners carrying the coffin "creak" across her soul as if it were a wood floor. Watch out! That thing's not stable!
• Line 11: Hard to tell if this line is a metaphor that means "super, ridiculously heavy boots," or if they really are wearing boots made of one of the heaviest elements on earth.
• Line 17: In this metaphor, reason is compared to the wood floor. A plank in the floor breaks, causing the speaker to begin an epic fall.
• Line 19: The speaker hits a "World" at every stage of her fall. We think this is a metaphor, if only we knew what she meant by "World."