Power and Violence

Right from the outset it becomes evident that the colonel in Forche's poem of the same name is a powerful man. He has plenty of money to provide a dinner of "rack of lamb" and "good wine" (9). He has "a gold bell...for calling the maid" (9-10). But how does the colonel come by his power? That, too, becomes evident early on in the poem, as he also has "a pistol on the cushion beside him" (3), and a wall around his home designed to "scoop the kneecaps from a man's legs or cut his hands to lace" (7). Clearly he is a man who uses violence to attain and maintain his power. The language the speaker uses to describe the colonel’s behavior portrays a man who likes to show off his power. She observes that he told a noisy parrot to “shut up” and...