Home

Home acts as a very general setting in several of the poems in the collection. The speaker references their home, both past and present, at certain points, although rarely if ever giving it any physical description. More often home as a setting is used to convey some sort of idea. For example, in “Portrait of the Alcoholic with Home Invader and Housefly,” the setting of the poem in the speaker’s home portrays their experience of being violated. Meanwhile in “Wild Pear Tree” the speaker’s home gives them the feeling of being cut off from the outside world as they spend the winter cooped up inside their house, wasting away in the cold.

The Wilderness

The wilderness appears as a setting in several poems, such as “Rimrock,” “The Straw Is Too Long, the Axes Is Too Dull,” and “Portrait of the Alcoholic Stranded Alone on a Desert...