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I have chosen the poem “Identity” by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. If you click here you will be redirected to the poem. Thomas B. Aldrich was a young man from New Hampshire. Afterward his father moved him to New Orleans to reside with him, but due to the sudden death of his father he was sent back to New Hampshire. According to wikipedia Thomas B. Aldrich went through a phase, which resulted in a “semi-autobiographical novel ‘The Story of a Bad Boy’ (1870)". This novel paved the way for other writers, like “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. After he went through the initial “bad boy” phase Aldrich ended up working for his uncle in his business office. He skipped college and went straight into business. He felt like he did not want to waste time learning in a classroom when he can learn what he "really" needs to know in real life experiences. The result of that is that he ended up meeting many influential people and helped him get started in his career.

“Identity” is a very short poem, but its straight to the point. This poem also has a lot of examples of symbolism. It’s a poem depicting the atmosphere and situation that’s going on. 

Desolate, which means something that is abandoned or lifeless.

Wind meaning the air that is flowing from high pressure to low pressure.

Twilight means the time between the sunset and dusk, when there is light out but the sun isn’t out yet.

No Man’s Land means a place where it’s uninhabitable for the human species to live. Hurrying means, to move with speed.

Shapes mean something is seen in outline or imaginary form.

Face is the front part of the head.

Bade is when you express a greeting or farewell.

Cried means when someone utter articulate sounds usually through grief and tears.

A-gape means with the mouth is wide open with surprise or eagerness.

Shuddering means quivering with fear, dread, or cold.

Gloaming with light meant the same as twilight.

Died means to cease to live.

So you might ask why all these definitions? Well if we crack what each word means then we can rewrite the poem in a simpler way so we can re-read and understand what we previously understood. With that being said lets try it now...

Somewhere in a very lifeless lonely area, where no man can live and the sunlight is visible but the sun is not. There were two shapes, which meant that there was two people. Finally they saw each other face to face. Then they greeted each other and one who was scared asked the other who he was and the other replied that he didn’t know whom he was because he just died the night before.

This poem is depicting that one of the shapes is a ghost. But I kind of believe that its actually one person in the poem. I feel that this might be what a person is asking himself. He is asking himself things like who is he? Then he replies that he died last night because last night might have been a traumatic experience or something in that aspect might of happened to him. Its like he is talking to himself inside his head. I believe that he did not mean this poem so literally, I believe its about the questions that we ask ourselves when we are in the beginning stages of growth and finding who we are or want to be. For example it’s the moment that you experience something like getting in a car accident the first thing that comes to your head is am I alive? Inside your head you are asking yourself questions trying to figure out if you are alright. That’s what the character is going through he is trying to figure out if he is alright because he believes that he is dead, being somewhere that he shouldn’t be. Maybe hell or modern day New York City.

Poem: http://www.poetry-archive.com/a/identity.html

History: Paragraph one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bailey_Aldrich

Definitions:

Desolate

Wind

Twilight

No Man's Land

Hurrying

Shapes

Face

Bade

Cried

A-gape

Shuddering

Gloaming

Died