Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 29-32
she said, but I'll tell you
you don't know anything.
Then we started.
On the way
- The grandmother finishes her thought from the previous stanza, telling the young folks that they don't know nearly as much as they think they do.
- We think this line gives her a kind of dignity. Her body might be failing her, but she's got a wealth of knowledge from her long life. She knows things that only a person who's lived as long as she has can know.
- The last two lines of the stanza are short and to the point. They're now in the ambulance and headed to the hospital.
- Something about the almost bland nature of the words makes them even more moving. The speaker doesn't play into the melodrama of the situation.
- He reports the facts. And the facts are scary.
- We're left hanging as another enjambment ends this stanza and leads us into the next.