Analysis of "The Man on the Dump"
             Through several writing techniques, Wallace Stevens paints a somber portrait in his poem "The Man on the Dump." Stevens' use of statements, lists, and punctuation gave me an overall sense of lazy joy suddenly changing to dark sadness.
             While reading Stevens' poem, I was reminded of the scene of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In the scene of Kennedy's death, everyone is at first extremely happy, but when Kennedy is shot, the onlooker's joy instantaneously reverts to horror. Similar to this scene, the speaker is at first enjoying the simple pleasures of a dump, but his mood quickly changes to deep sadness. Stevens uses particular statement throughout the poem to express the mood of the speaker. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker expresses his delightful indolence by using the line, "Day creeps down. The moon is creeping up(1)." This statement gives the impression of time passing slowly. He goes on to say, "one sits and beats an old tin can," giving the reader the feeling that the speaker is enjoying the time he is spending on the dump. Stevens' use of imagery and statements in the last stanza instantaneously changes the scene to macabre; the speaker says, "nightingale torture the ear, Pack the heart and scratch the mind (39-40)." The speaker's mood changed, just as the mood of the crowd of onlookers changed as they watched their beloved president shot.
             Another tool that Stevens uses to affect the poem's mood is the usage of lists. He reveals common, everyday objects contained on a dump, "The wrapper on a can of pears/the cat in the paper bag, the corset, the box (7-8)," giving the poem a simple natured feel. The tone of the poem is again changed drastically in the last stanza, when the speaker uses the following list: "mattresses of the dead, bottles, pots, sho
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