The Satisfaction Coal Company
Rita Dove
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1. What to do with a day. Leaf through Jet. Watch T.V. Freezing on the porch but he goes anyhow, snow too high for a walk, the ice treacherous. Inside, the gas heater takes care of itself; he doesn’t even notice being warm. Everyone says he looks great. Across the street a drunk stands smiling at something carved in a tree. The new neighbor with the floating hips scoots out to get the mail and waves once, brightly, storm door clipping her heel on the way in. 2. Twice a week he had taken the bus down Glendale hill to the corner of Market. Slipped through the alley by the canal and let himself in. Started to sweep with terrible care, like a woman brushing shine into her hair, same motion, same lullaby. No curtains—the cop on the beat stopped outside once in the hour to swing his billy club and glare. It was better on Saturdays when the children came along: he mopped while they emptied ashtrays, clang of glass on metal then a dry scutter. Next they counted nailheads studding the leather cushions. Thirty-four! they shouted, that was the year and they found it mighty amusing. But during the week he noticed more— lights when they gushed or dimmed at the Portage Hotel, the 10:32 picking up speed past the B & O switchyard,° floorboards trembling and the explosive kachook kachook kachook kachook and the oiled rails ticking underneath. 3. They were poor then but everyone had been poor. He hadn’t minded the sweeping, just the thought of it—like now when people ask him what he’s thinking and he says I’m listening. Those nights walking home alone, the bucket of coal scraps banging his knee, he’d hear a roaring furnace with its dry, familiar heat. Now the nights take care of themselves—as for the days, there is the canary’s sweet curdled song, the wino smiling through his dribble. Past the hill, past the gorge choked with wild sumac in summer, the corner has been upgraded. Still, he’d like to go down there someday to stand for a while, and get warm. |
Making Meanings
The Satisfaction Coal Company
1. What do you think about the way this poem is presented and illustrated in your textbook?
2. One of this poem’s strengths is its diction—the poet’s choice of words. For instance, Dove writes that lights “gushed” rather than “brightened.” What other examples of unusual diction can you find in the poem? How did you respond to this poet’s use of language?
3. Dove’s poem teems with images and phrases related to time, like days of the week and seasons of the year. Identify some of these images and explain their significance in the poem.
4. How would you describe Thomas’s response to the circumstances of his life? What do his reminiscences tell us about him? Support your interpretation with specific evidence from the poem.
5. State what you think is the central theme of Dove’s poem. In what ways does part 3 develop this theme? Does the title suggest a clue?
6. Dove has said that some individuals in her poems “are struggling to sing in their chains.” How do you think this statement applies to Thomas, if at all? How does it describe his response to the circumstances of his life?