An Accident Waiting to Happen In life, an innocent bystander, parent, or friend could receive news that would change their life forever. A death of a loved one is something that can drop someone to their knees in agony. Karl Shapiro’s “Auto Wreck” faces the hard truth that is a car accident. To summarize, “Auto Wreck” is a gut-wrenching retelling of a brutal accident in which two cars collide in a fatal accident. The poem concludes on a more philosophical note explaining the certainty that is faced in true death and how unseen and sudden a car accident can be on a family. Karl Shapiro published “Auto Wreck” in his collection of poems entitled “Selected Poems.” He utilized the poetry collection to examine the severe certainties of war because
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Shapiro’s first signs of repetitive phrasing occur right in the first line of “Auto Wreck,” “it 's quick soft silver bell beating, beating.” (1) This repetition of the word beating was inserted to create an image of the ambulance racing to the scene of the accident. This phrase is also considered to be onomatopoeia, because of the sound which the ambulance makes, beating and whooping, in an attempt to scare the other drivers off the road. The repetition also produces a lasting effect, since it is in the primary line the reader is left thinking about it the whole poem. The particular word beating is utilized by Shapiro in an attempt to produce a negative connotation. In doing so, he also gave the reader a negative denotation because the dictionary definition of beating is, “a punishment or assault in which the victim is hit repeatedly, or the pulsation or throbbing, typically of the heart.” (Dictionary.com) Both these definitions are common themes in Shapiro’s poem. In addition to, the line stated above, Shapiro also utilizes repetition in the line, “Rocking, slightly rocking, moves away.” (13) Shapiro is talking about the ambulance at the end of the first stanza in this particular line. He uses the repetition of the word rocking to produce a lasting image of the forsaken body before it is dragged off to a …show more content…
According to the Association for Safe International Road Travel, they estimate that “37,000 Americans die each year in road crashes,” (Road Crash Statistics) these could all be avoided and allow parents, relatives, and family members out worried as to if their child or friend will die. This theme of sadness and death are major themes that Karl Shapiro supports in his 1940’s poem. Only he connects the road deaths to the beginning of the highway system and WWII. In reality, whichever way the audience depicts the car crash they have still left wondering could the gruesomeness be avoided, how? In “Auto Wreck,” Karl Shapiro supports this claim through his effective use of imagery, repetition, and parallelism throughout his entire poem. If Karl Shapiro were still alive today (death in 2000) he would want his reader to realize that car accidents should not be waiting to occur but avoided at all
Shapiro’s first signs of repetitive phrasing occur right in the first line of “Auto Wreck,” “it 's quick soft silver bell beating, beating.” (1) This repetition of the word beating was inserted to create an image of the ambulance racing to the scene of the accident. This phrase is also considered to be onomatopoeia, because of the sound which the ambulance makes, beating and whooping, in an attempt to scare the other drivers off the road. The repetition also produces a lasting effect, since it is in the primary line the reader is left thinking about it the whole poem. The particular word beating is utilized by Shapiro in an attempt to produce a negative connotation. In doing so, he also gave the reader a negative denotation because the dictionary definition of beating is, “a punishment or assault in which the victim is hit repeatedly, or the pulsation or throbbing, typically of the heart.” (Dictionary.com) Both these definitions are common themes in Shapiro’s poem. In addition to, the line stated above, Shapiro also utilizes repetition in the line, “Rocking, slightly rocking, moves away.” (13) Shapiro is talking about the ambulance at the end of the first stanza in this particular line. He uses the repetition of the word rocking to produce a lasting image of the forsaken body before it is dragged off to a …show more content…
According to the Association for Safe International Road Travel, they estimate that “37,000 Americans die each year in road crashes,” (Road Crash Statistics) these could all be avoided and allow parents, relatives, and family members out worried as to if their child or friend will die. This theme of sadness and death are major themes that Karl Shapiro supports in his 1940’s poem. Only he connects the road deaths to the beginning of the highway system and WWII. In reality, whichever way the audience depicts the car crash they have still left wondering could the gruesomeness be avoided, how? In “Auto Wreck,” Karl Shapiro supports this claim through his effective use of imagery, repetition, and parallelism throughout his entire poem. If Karl Shapiro were still alive today (death in 2000) he would want his reader to realize that car accidents should not be waiting to occur but avoided at all