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Hi im doing a Report on this Poem and I Could use some help finding out what it means heres the poem
After a hundred years
Nobody knows the place,--
Agony, that enacted there,
Motionless as peace.
Weeds triumphant ranged,
Strangers strolled and spelled
At the lone orthography
Of the elder dead.
Winds of summer fields
Recollect the way,--
Instinct picking up the key
Dropped by memory.
Thanks for Any Help.
How disappointing that you ask others to do your homework for you. This is an uncomplicated poem. Here's a hint: reread the title. Think: "this poem is talking about a place." See where that takes you.
Does anyone like this poem for pleasure? Its my favorite of her poetry.My interpretation of this poem is that is talking about a cemetery ( ''strangers strolled and spelled at the lone orthography of the elder dead''), maybe abandoned '' weeds truimphant ranged''. It talks about in time, everything becomes peaceful and quiet, and doesn't matter anymore. Essentially, it is about the passage of time, and how everything becomes peaceful in time, after death, etc. I think another interpretation of this poem says it is talking about a battlefield, maybe a 100 years after the battle. That fits too. I like to think of the cemetery interpretation better.
The author's name and date might be useful to determine the poem's meaning. It certainly reads, at least at first glance, like someone visiting a battlefield and reading a marker, then gazing out upon an empty field and thinking of the battle or contemporary photographs or paintings.