Yumeng Sun

[Yumeng Sun @YumengSun5]

Q6: "Beyond This Place" is hopeful in the same way Pandora's Box is. Despite the bleak topic, Clint Smith chooses to instead focus on the humanity of the people confined there. The quiet defiance and a reminder of what can be are what gives the poem its hopeful tone. #rrhsaplit

[Yumeng Sun @YumengSun5]

Q5: The metaphor in the second stanza illustrates an ideal where people can build a better world just by taking what we have and giving them a better chance. #rrhsaplit

[Yumeng Sun @YumengSun5]

Q4: The first two stanzas detail the layout of a prison that can be seen by any outsider. Adding individual names in the third stanza creates an intimate atmosphere where the reader is able to empathize with people as they are, not as what society has made of them. #rrhsaplit

[Yumeng Sun @YumengSun5]

Q3: The question critiques the constraints that society and people have placed on things - prisons, fences, and the men locked inside them - that have the potential to achieve much more, but have been reduced to much less. #rrhsaplit

[Yumeng Sun @YumengSun5]

Q2: The image most prevalent after the first reading would be stagnancy of what could've been a vibrant place with vibrant people. #rrhsaplit

[Yumeng Sun @YumengSun5]

Q1: The title "Beyond This Place" creates an image of limitations and the expectations of potential that lay just out of reach. #rrhsaplit

[Yumeng Sun @YumengSun5]

WU: My favorite poem in Counting Descent is "Zero Gravity" because it describes the bliss of childhood innocence from the eyes of someone who has lost theirs, a reminder that we have tasted freedom before the world weighed us down. #rrhsaplit