The Colonel's Home

Literally, the poem takes place in the home of 'the colonel' during a fancy dinner party. He is part of a military government and it appears he is high up in the ranks of those in charge, as the speaker observes, "There is some talk then of how difficult it had become to govern" (13). The surroundings are elegant: there is a sumptuous meal being served by a maid and the wine is flowing. The time is contemporary, as evidenced by reference to a cop show playing on the television.

El Salvador

It is well-known that the poet, Carolyn Forche, spent time El Salvador in the early 1970s, working as a journalist and reporting on the atrocities committed there during a bloody civil war. Hence it is not out of the question to assume that the setting here is, in fact, El Salvador. Further evidence that the...