Summary

In the poem titled “The Limited,” an unnamed narrator, driving, watches another man try to hit a stray dog with his car but the man fails. The narrator confronts the other man, but the other man shouts at him not to stare him down unless the narrator is prepared to do something about it. At home, the narrator considers that poets cannot change the world, but that the only life he can save is his own.

In the short story “Breaking and Entering,” George Wilson’s college film professor, Mr. Baron, always tells him to not worry about showing people entering a room, because audiences will understand that people have already entered the room. Wilson bears this piece of advice–to skip the door–in mind for years, explaining that it means to omit...