Thomas at the Wheel
Rita Dove wrote "Thomas at the Wheel" and it is from the collection of poetry called "Thomas and Beulah." This poetry tells the story of the lives of Thomas and Beulah. The first part of the story is from Thomas's point of view, "Mandolin," and the second part is Beulah's, "Canary in Bloom." "Thomas at the Wheel" is from the "Mandolin" selection. "Thomas at the Wheel" is written in the third person, and it is five stanzas long. In this poem Thomas has a heart attack that kills him and some of his thoughts are represented. Thomas knows that he is having a heart attack, he accepts the fact that he is going to die and he thinks of his wife with his final thoughts. This poem symbolizes that Thomas finally has control of his life and that he is ready to leave this world. In the first stanza, it is raining and Thomas is in a drugstore parking lot. He is reminiscing about a childhood experience that happened to his friend Lem. Thomas watched his friend die in a river. The line "This, then, the river he had to swim" (l.1), Thomas is thinking about the river that killed his friend. The heavy rain is bringing back memories. Perhaps Thomas has a feeling that his life might end soon.
In the third stanza it appears that Thomas is frozen in pain, "he couldn't ungrip the steering wheel" (l. 11). He couldn't get help because of this, but in stanza four he is able to lie down across the seat and in the final stanza he is able to laugh. I wonder why he didn't yell for help or attempt to get out of the car and go into the drugstore. Why doesn't he honk the horn, he thinks about doing it, "should he honk" (l. 10). He has had a heart attack before; he knows the signs and what they are like and what the end result can be. Throughout the poem Thomas seems calm knowing that he is about to die. There is no mention of panic, or regret, or even feeling sorry for himself. The only emotion that is represent is in stanza three, "what a joke" (l. 10). It seems that Thomas finds it ironic or annoyed that this is happening to him. He doesn't seem angry that he is going to die. In stanza 4, "And now the street dark, not a soul / nor its brother" (ll. 14-15), Thomas is all alone. The man left and now Thomas has no one to ask for help because the streets are empty. "A pod set to sea" (l. 16) represents that his life on earth is about to end and that a new journey is to begin. "A kiss unpuckering" (l. 17) represents that when a kiss ends so will his life. As he is lying across his seat and his life is fading away, Thomas not
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 909
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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