• Themes 
• Type and form
• Analysis
• Tone and mood
• Activity 4

Auto wreck by Karl Shapiro

Auto wreck was written by Karl Shapiro (1913-2000). He was an American poet who began writing poetry when he was fighting in the Second World War (1939 - 1945). He sent his poems back to America, where his fiancée had them published. He wrote Auto wreck in 1941, during the war.
He is famous for writing poetry about ordinary things such as flies, cars, supermarkets and this car crash. Shapiro was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1945 and was the American Poet Laureate in 1946 and 1947.

Note 

• An 'auto-wreck' is how Americans refer to a acar-crash.

1. Themes

The main theme of the poem is death, and the uncertainty of life.
The poem shows how uncertain and insecure life can be. None of us knows when and how we will die. The people in the cars were probably not thinking at all about life and death when suddenly the crash happened. In a moment, their lives have been changed by horrible injuries, or have been taken away altogether. The poet has no reasonable explanation for this.

Auto wreck by Karl Shapiro

Words to know:

 2. Type and form 

This is a descriptive poem that deals with thoughts and feelings, so it could be classed as a lyric poem.
The poem is written in free verse, a form of poetry that has no set rhyming pattern. The structure is informal: lines and stanzas may be of different lengths and usually there is no regular use of rhyme, or even no rhyme at all.

3. Analysis

These lines describe the arrival of the ambulance at the scene of the car crash (auto wreck). In the 1940s, when this poem was written, ambulances had loud bells, not sirens as they have today. The first few words create a pleasant feeling with the description of the ambulance siren as a “soft silver bell”. Notice how the alliteration of the ‘s’ gives a gentle sound. The repetition of “beating, beating” to describe the strokes of the bell is a harsh contrast.
Then the poet refers to the “dark” of the night and the red “flare” (line 1) as the red light on top of the ambulance approaches. The use of the word “dark” instead of “night” helps to make the scene feel more grim and full of danger.

Note: flare- a light that a ship sends out, like a firework, to show that it is in danger and needs help

The poet then shocks us out of any comfortable feelings we have by using the simile “Pulsing out red light like an artery” in line 3 to describe the light. The flashing light is compared to blood shooting out (“pulsing”) from a blood vessel. This comparison makes us feel that the accident may involve serious injuries, even death. The ambulance speeds along, passing the lights of the signs and clocks on buildings in an ordinary street. The poet compares the ambulance that races to the accident to a large bird coming down to land in the metaphor “Wings... dips down” (line 6). The vehicle brakes and slows to a stop among the crowd of bystanders who always gather at the scene of an accident.

These lines describe how the accident victims are loaded into the ambulance and driven away. The poet shows the speed and urgency of the paramedics with the personification of the doors that “leap” or jump open, the way, probably, that the paramedics jump quickly out of the ambulance.
Many words the poet uses in stanza 1 – “quick”, “top speed”, “brakes speed”, “leap” – help to give a sense of emergency and haste to the scene. The scene is lit up by the light from inside the ambulance and we see that the victims are extremely badly injured as they are described as being “mangled” (line 9). The word “stowed” (line 10) means “packed away” and could suggest that these people are hurriedly packed into the ambulance as if they are just things or bodies, not living people.

Note: Mangled - twisted and broken

The metaphor “little hospital” (line 10) tells us that the ambulance is equipped to care for the injured. The poet now uses the word “tolls” (line 11) to describe the ambulance bell. This reminds us of a funeral, when the church bell is “tolled” and we suspect that some of the victims may be dying or even dead. This idea is supported when the poet refers to the victims, describes the injured people in the ambulance as “terrible cargo” (line 12).
The ambulance drives off before the doors are closed. This also gives a sense of urgency to the scene as it needs to hurry to save lives. The extended tolling bells also remind us of a funeral; and the “closing” doors suggest that lives may be also be lost (“closed” in line 14). The ambulance now almost becomes a hearse, a vehicle that transports the dead.

Note: The poet vividly describes the movement of the ambulance by using verbs such as 'floating', 'dips' and 'rocking'.

The crowd is still wandering around at the scene. “Deranged” literally means ‘mentally disturbed’, which shows how much the accident has upset the onlookers. Note that the poet uses the informal word “cops” instead of ‘police’. In contrast to the onlookers, who are very upset, the policemen are calm as they carry out their duties. Could this be because the police are trained to be calm in an emergency and are used to accident scenes? One policeman washes the blood away with water (“douches”), another makes notes and a third one hangs warning lights (“lanterns”) on the remains of the crashed cars.
The hyperbole, “ponds of blood” (line 18), indicates that much blood has been spilled and tells us how badly the victims have been hurt – but notice how easily the signs of pain and suffering are removed with buckets of water. The broken wrecks of the cars are wrapped around the street poles.
The metaphor comparing the wrecked cars to “empty husks of locusts” (line 21) shows how badly the cars are damaged. The images of the husk and locust suggest the torn and broken metal of the cars. Locusts are also very destructive insects. They can eat and destroy crops very quickly; in the same way that an accident can happen quickly and cars can become wrecks.

Note: Husk - The dried-out covering of a plant like a mealie

Note: The stanza shows how shocked the onlookers are.

This stanza focuses on the feelings and reactions of the onlookers. The poet uses medical metaphors to describe the way they feel. Their throats feel as if they are tightly tied up by tourniquets. The shock and horror of the accident makes them unable to move freely, as if their bones have been broken and tied to splints to keep them from moving. These medical metaphors suggest that the onlookers, too, have been hurt (but in their minds, not their bodies). The metaphor “convalescents” (line 24) shows them slowly beginning to recover from the shock, but their smiles are “sickly” and false as they try to hide their horror. They try to make contact (“be intimate”) with one another in an awkward (“gauche”) way.
Some “warn/ With the stubborn saw of common sense” (line 26) – perhaps they are talking about how one should drive more carefully; others make “grim jokes” (line 27). Still others make a “banal resolution”, saying stereotypical things and perhaps using clichés such as, ‘You never know when your turn [to die] is coming’, or decide that they themselves will drive more carefully in future.
There are a number of oxymorons in stanza 3. The onlookers make “grim jokes” (line 27) and they cannot stop thinking about and looking at the accident. It fills their minds with “richest horror” (line 30). We can understand how the accident fills them with horror: the victims could have been themselves or their loved ones, and the accident fills them with the fear of death or dreadful injury.

Note: Oxymoron - Deliberately puts 2 words with opposite meaning together. 'Grim' means horrible or frightening, which is not something we associate with jokes. 'Jokes' have the connotation of laughter and fun.

In the last stanza, the poet thinks about the mystery of death and its causes. None of us knows how or when we will die, or who will die next: this is the “old ... question” that is in the minds of the onlookers. But this reminds them of another silent question: “Who is innocent?” (line 32). This rhetorical question asks who is responsible for the accident and why those particular people should have been the victims. The poet – and the onlookers – cannot answer the question. Death in an accident like this one does not seem to have a reasonable explanation and is confusing to ordinary people.

Note: Rhetorical question -  a question that doesn't really need an answer.

The poet thinks there are reasons for other forms of death that we can understand: people kill one another in war; they kill themselves because of depression or despair; babies are born dead for medical reasons. Diseases like cancer are shown by the simile comparing the way cancer grows inside you to the way a flower blooms (line 35).
The poet feels the only explanation is an “occult” one: only fate – or perhaps God - can explain death in an accident like this. We like to think we can explain everything through science and reason (“physics”), but such accidents make our science useless and mock it (“cancels our physics with a sneer” in line 37). We like to think that life should be like a story in which everything is explained at the end (the “denouement”), but an accident like this is different, and has no easy explanation.
In the final metaphor the poet shows us that the idea of a “denouement” is destroyed, “spattered” like the blood of the victims all over the road. The description of the road (“stones”) is, as we all know, useful (“expedient”), but, being the scene of the accident, it is also personified as “wicked” (line 39) perhaps because without roads and cars there would be no car accidents.

4. Tone and mood

In stanzas 1, the tone is urgent and matter-of-fact as the cleaning up of the accident is described.
In stanza 2, 3 and 4, the tone is confused and horrified as the spectators realise how terrible the accident was.
In stanza 5, the tone is confused and uncertain at the uncertainties of life and death.
The mood of a poem is how it makes the reader feel. How does this poem make you feel? For example, happy, sad, angry, or indifferent.

Summary 
Auto wreck by Karl Shapiro

1. Theme
   Death and the uncertainty of life.
2. Type and form
   
3. Tone and mood
   Tone: Urgent, matter-of-fact, confused, horrified, fearful, uncertain
   Mood: How does this poem make you feel? Happy, sad, angry or indifferent? Always give reasons for your answer.

Activity 4 

Refer to the poem on page 31 and answer the questions below.

1. Complete the following sentences by using the words provided in the list Write only the words next to the question number (1.1–1.3)

   police van; accident; dead; ambulance; break-down; injured

   This poem describes how the (1.1) … rushes to the scene of the (1.2) … The (1.3) … are picked up and taken to hospital.                                                           (3)
2. Refer to stanza
   2.1 At what time of the day does this incident happen? (1)
   2.2 In lines 4-6 (“The ambulance at ... and illuminated clocks”) the ambulance is compared to a bird. Quote TWO separate words that support this (1) (2)
3. Choose the correct answer to complete the following Write only the answer (A-D).
   The word “mangled” in line 9 tells us that ...
   1. The vehicles are badly damaged.
   2. Some of the bystanders are very upset.
   3. The policemen are emotionless.
   4. The accident victims are seriously injured.                       (1)
4. Refer to lines 15 and 16 (“We are deranged … and composed”).
   Quote TWO separate words that show the difference in the reactions of the speaker and the policemen.                                                                             (2)
5. Refer to line 25 (“We speak through sickly smiles ...”).
   Explain why the onlookers have “sickly smiles”.                    (2)
6. Refer to stanza
   Using your own words, name TWO things that the onlookers are concerned about.                                                            (2)
7. Complete the following sentences by using the words provided in the list below.

   solution; confuses; reason; unnatural; clarifies; logical

   In the last stanza, the speaker argues that there is always a (7.1) ... for Suicide, while stillbirth is (7.2) ... However, a car crash (7.3)... the minds of ordinary people.  (3)
8. Explain why the poet mentions war, suicide, stillbirth and cancer in a poem about a road (2)
9. The poem was first published in Do you think it is still relevant today?
   Discuss your view.                                                                  (2)
10. Has this poem changed your understanding of the causes of road deaths? Discuss your (2) [22]