The Wolves Raleigh Rekdal Summary

The poem The Wolves is written by Paisley Rekdal, published in February 2016 in the collection Poetry. The poet is an American who grew up in Seattle, Washington, she descends from an asian and Norwegian heritage. She is known for writing about ethics of the modern current society, she reflects these issues within her poems. The Wolves to summarize is about a child expressing the difficulties and hardships of losing a parent. The poem is about the mother struggling with a tumor and she has come to accept her death however though the children want the same, they also want her to remember herself first. Who she is and the people around her. Rekdal's poem goes through the process of an exploration of self identity and creates a sense of self realization within the reader. The poem demonstrates a clear search for identity through the uses of constant tone, imagery, and setting, which encourages the reader to question themselves further. …show more content…
Her tone leaves the reader wondering multiple things and extending their thinking. Rekdal proposes the metaphor, "An animal cry, memory " (Rekdal 33-34), within her poem. This line tells us the author is implying that like an animal cry, a memory is called upon. Like a scream for help, a memory is recalled to remember something as a reminder of an identity. In case of the poem, memories are called upon so that before her slow death the mother remembers. She remembers her identity, who she was, what she is known for, and who the people around her

were. So the mother leaves with a good sense of self identification. The metaphor embodies the constant tone throughout the poem which goes on to put an emphasis of self exploration and developing multiple questions in the readers