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Comment 5 of 5, added on April 19th, 2006 at 12:52 PM.
this poem makes me wish i could read..the complexity of illiteracy is
exuberating...
Sir Longfellow wink wink from United States
Comment 4 of 5, added on January 18th, 2006 at 2:17 PM.
This first part of this poem is about the darkening and silencing of a city
when the curfew bells ring, the second part of the poem is about a book
that is discarded and permenantly forgotten.
The second half borrows similar imagery from the first half of the poem,
juxtaposing the two to create a deeper meaning. You have the metaphoric
death of the town (basically the town quieting down for the curfew, putting
out fires and lights and going down for a long silent sleep) All of which
invokes death imagery. Then in the second half you have a forgotten book,
sitting in a forgotten room in the darkened village. The key to reading
this as a poem about death are the lines: "Sleep and oblivion reign over
all", which are repeated twice to end both sections of the poem.
The book in the second half of poem is the Book of Life written by God with
the names of everyone in the world (who will live and who will die). I
suppose one could read the second half of the poem as the End Times. The
book is forgotten and discarded and thus all of humanity is forgotten and
discarded, but that may be a bit extreme.
The first half of a curfew, not only open with imagery of a village
entering a state of sleep, but also presents us with the very concept of
the curfew. The curfew is a restriction on the life of the town itself, it
limits freedom to "live" after the bell strikes. In the second half, this
is repeated, except now we have the Book of Life written by God, which
limits who has the freedom to live. In both cases, the individual is not in
control of their destiny, but someone else is controlling their destiny and
whether they can live or exist (in the first part of the poem after a
certain time in the day, in the latter half, after God has finished the
story and forgotten about it). That is what this poem is about: not having
control of one's own freedom, of one's own destiny, but obedient to bells
and the book of some greater force (the town/God).
Eric
Comment 3 of 5, added on May 15th, 2005 at 11:16 AM.
I first read this poem over fifty years ago. The first part refers to the
law in England that required fires to be put out at dusk to prevent another
major fire. I always felt the second part was about our lives. The author
of the book is God. After our death, after a few generations we are little
more than a name on a grave stone.
Mary Perry from United States
Comment 2 of 5, added on April 19th, 2005 at 4:34 PM.
i like this poem
Bob from Georgia, Republic of
Comment 1 of 5, added on September 21st, 2004 at 6:26 PM.
this poem rocks!!! it grabs you right at the go with the awesome ryhmes!!!
it gives so much more detail to curfew then what kids and teens deal with
in todays time!!!
lacey from United States
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this poem makes me wish i could read..the complexity of illiteracy is
exuberating...
Sir Longfellow wink wink from United States