Point of View

The point of view of Carver: A Life in Poems is varying. The point of view depends on each individual poem. For example, Susan Carver tells her perspective from the first person in "Prayer of the Ivory-Handled Knife." She gives the reader a personal, close up perspective of how much she loves George and his brother Jim. She discusses her deep feelings of being a mother. Mariah Watkins does the same thing in "Watkins Laundry and Apothecary." Watkins' first person point of view allows the reader to see how much she loves and enjoys young Carver. She also notices his talents and sees his intelligence. In other poems, the first person point of view is given by outsiders or characters without names who give an outside perspective of Carver. For example, in "Old Settlers' Reunion", the first person perspective is of a homesteader who lives near...