Sign Inventory, Week 4

Autun Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio

In the Shreve High football stadium,
I think of Polacks nurning long beers in Tiltonsville,
And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood,
And the ruptured night watchmen of Wheeling Steel,
Dreaming of hereos.

All the proud fathers are ashamed to go home.
There women cluck like starved pullets,
Dying for love.

Therefore,
Their sons grow suicidally beautiful
At the beginning of October,
And gallop terribly against each other's bodies.


*There is a use of capital letters for the two ethnic indifications of Polack and Negeros. The only other time capital letters are used are for proper nouns.

*Looking at form, there is a capital letter to begin each line, even if the line is not the beginning of the sentence.

*There is a focus on working class citizens as illastrated in "Gray faces of Neggroes in the blast furnace and Polacks nursing long beers."

*The spearker doesn't seem interested in the game at all, because he is more focused on the people around him.

*The spearker sees football as a violent game as illastrated in the "gallop terribly against each other's bodies."

*Women are struggling with husbands that are "starved" and "dying for love." This is an intersted idea, because they are watching their sons.

*There is a delibrate use of specific towns in Ohio. All fo these references are actual businesses and towns.

*The idea that their sons grow suicidially beautifal is a haunting image of football, because their parents are having troubles.

*The men are dreaming of hereos, while the women are dying for love. Is the speaker point out the difference in they way men and women view life?

*The use of therfore is unique, becaus it is the only one word line in the poem. It causes the reader to think that their children are violent and suicidal, because their parents are distant.