please help me find an anaylisis for the poem,"Key to the highway"

Could you print the text of the poem? That might help.

Les

I believe this is the poem that Blake is referring to.

Key To The Highway

Mark Halliday

I remember riding somewhere in a fast car
with my brother and his friend Jack Brooks
and we were listening to Layla & Other Love Songs
by Derek & the Dominos. The night was dark,
dark all along the highway. Jack Brooks was
a pretty funny guy, and I was delighted
by the comradely interplay between him and my brother,
but I tried not to show it for fear of inhibiting them.
I tried to be reserved and maintain a certain
dignity appropriate to my age, older by four years.
They knew the Dominos album well having played the cassette
many times, and they knew how much they liked it.
As we rode on in the dark I felt the music was,
after all, wonderful, and I said so
with as much dignity as possible. "That's right,"
said my brother. "You're getting smarter," said Jack.
We were listening to "Bell Bottom Blues"
at that moment. Later we were listening to
"Key to the Highway", and I remembered how
my brother said, "Yeah, yeah." And Jack sang
one of the lines in a way that made me laugh.
I am upset by the fact that that night is so absolutely gone.
No, "upset" is too strong. Or is it.
But that night is so obscure—until now
I may not have thought of that ride once
in eight years—and this obscurity troubles me.
Death is going to defeat us all so easily.
Jack Brooks is in Florida, I believe,
and I may never see him again, which is
more or less all right with me; he and my brother
lost touch some years ago. I wonder
where we were going that night. I don't know;
but it seemed as if we had the key to the highway.

Blake, I don't think there are any websites that have an analysis, but you can do one of your own. The first step would be to make an outline. Here's a sample of the topics you should address:

1. Introduction ( What you think the poem is about.)

2. Meter/Rhyme Scheme (or lack of same)

3. Meaning/ Connotation and Denotation (what is being said, what is being infered)

4. Poetic devices, such as symbolism, alliteration, similies, metaphors etc.

5. Summary ( How effective you think the author is in accomplishing his goals poetically.)

If you can answer these questions, I think you will have covered most of the topics your instructor might deem important. If there are other aspects covered in your class which I haven't listed, be sure to take them into your account of the poem.

Les

It is hard for me personally do take such a poem seriously, but it (and others by the same author) appear in the poem a day for American high schools list:

[www.loc.gov]

Perhaps a lack of spelling and grammar mistakes, with lines that do not reach the right margin are all that is required to make the 180 list? Mystifying, but I will therefore have to bite the bullet and infer it is good poetry, at least on some level.

The speaker is reflecting back on a night when he, his brother and his brother's friend are riding in a car, listening to music on the radio. Is the speaker the eldest of the three (by four years)? Seems like it, but the rest of the dialog makes me think he is the younget. No matter. Key lines would appear to be,

>I am upset by the fact that that night is so absolutely gone.

and,

>I may not have thought of that ride once
>in eight years—and this obscurity troubles me.
>Death is going to defeat us all so easily.

>it seemed as if we had the key to the highway.

If the highway is the road of life, and they had the key, that might be interpreted as 'living in the moment'. That is, carpe the diem for tomorrow we die. For me, if that is what the author is trying to impart, the lesson is too old to be carping on it again. Every poet for the last umpty-dump centuries has written a poem on the same subject, I mean.

I have missed the point, you say? Wouldn't be the first time, so make your own interpretation if mine is off base.

Hugh, taken from the title, the song to which the title refers, is about the freedom of the open road. So the theme might be not carpe diem, but freedom of choice, or perhaps a new beginning. Compare this:

Key To The Highway
--Eric Clapton

I got the key to the highway,
Billed out and bound to go.
I'm gonna leave here running;
Walking is most too slow.

I'm going back to the border
Woman, where I'm better known.
You know you haven't done nothing,
Drove a good man away from home.

Live Verse: When the moon peeks over the mountains
I'll be on my way.
I'm gonna roam this old highway
Until the break of day.

Oh give me one, one more kiss mama
Just before I go,
'Cause when I leave this time you know I,
I won't be back no more.

Les



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2006 11:25AM by lg.

thanks for all your help and the tips you gave me really helped.Ill be sure to send outr another question.thanks a million