Galway Kinnell is an American poet. He was the Poet Laureate of Vermont from 1989 to 1993. An admitted follower of Walt Whitman, Kinnell rejects the idea of seeking fulfilment by escaping into the imaginary world. His best-loved and most anthologized poems are “St. Francis and the Sow” and “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps”. Biography Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Kinnell said that as a youth, he was turned on to poetry by Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson, drawn to both the musical appeal of their poetry and the idea that they led solitary lives. The allure of the language spoke to what he describes as the homogeneous feel of his hometown.
The writer says that the child is damaged after some time has passed and not immediately. He substantiates his claim by exemplifying two scenarios that occur at the same time. In one scenario, the parent leaves the child in his room to sleep, and in the other scenario, that occurs at the same time when a train howls. In the next lines, the poet describes that the scenario of the parent is similar to something spiritual. Kinnell’s poems tend to explore the psychological aspects of the situations more. The poem also presents various exemplifications in this regard. He started from an individual experience, and then he linked the same concept by generalizing the thoughts into the perspective of the universe.
The story takes a turn from the universe to the individual of a house who has been a principal occupant of the house and is struggling. He tries to make the similarity between the nature and the human conduct. He generalizes his findings by summing up the whole situation, saying that pressure can exhaust any person. On the level of the universe, he says that the increase in the frequency of waves increases energy. Whatever the type of pressure is, it turns into a crisis and is devastating. The story further provides a solution to it as well while ending the notion in the discussion that the curiosity and probing nature regarding a situation can help figure out the issue beforehand.
Further, the discussion also tends to exemplify the cause and effect situation that is demonstrated by quoting a few scenarios such as “the female nurse’s elbow, for instance, bumping a penis, could raise it up”, etc. one of the interesting points the story contains is the use to quote about the train that the writer links to the ideas and the scenarios he presents in the poem. He attempts to exemplify his thoughts by generalizing them and then funnelling them down by linking these thoughts with the Lacka wanna that, according to him, is the sound produced by the train. The story and the context in the poem are constructed for the purpose of promoting and highlighting the role of railways.
Thus, the significance of the rails and the tracks and their impacts are demonstrated in this poem, as well, by creating different scenarios. Various scenario such as the use of eight minutes where the writer describes that ‘It will be eight minutes before we know it is dead”. “There shall be plenty of time for the ordinary human act” affirm this notion. In a nutshell, for the Americans, the significance of the railroads is much more than the historical curiosity that they are considered today. The spirit of America is being presented through them as they reflect various contemporary and bold characteristics at that time. These railroads helped America to shape its future. They linked the country and transformed it into a civilization. Thus, the writer of Lackawanna also attempted to present the same picture in his own unique style, where he tried to connect nature with it.
