The Sick Neighbor (poem: "August")
The neighbor is a woman the narrator of the poem “August” has lived next to for many years. Over the course of a summer, the narrator observes how the neighbor’s family puts up a happy façade despite their mother’s obvious illness.
While their relationship is not the focus of the poem, it is implied that they got along well, but weren’t very close (as the narrator speaks fondly of her but doesn’t seem to be a close enough friend to talk to about her sickness).
The neighbor herself appears only in the first stanza and is never explicitly mentioned again, even though her sickness puts an implied shadow over the apparent happy summer of her family.
The narrator describes the neighbor first and foremost as “tall and blonde and vigorous” (l.1) and secondly as a “mother of many children” (l. 1-2). However, her sickness seems to have entirely eradicated her physical strength, as the narrator describes how she has aged quickly, even to the point of where the narrator almost confused her with her mother. However, she has kept her unique voice and apparent humor, so it is implied that the sickness only destroyed her body but not her inner strength or character.
Her close-knit family situation is portrayed by the actions of her family over the course of the summer. Her children are grown but there seems to be a strong family bond as they, together with their father and their own children, spent a lot of time together over the summer, which is implied to be the usual situation.
What actually happens with the neighbor is never explicitly said. It seems unlikely that she already died (as no funeral or interaction between narrator and the neighbor’s family is mentioned which would have surely followed). Instead it appears more likely that the neighbor is slowly dying (which might also be the reason of why the narrator doesn’t see her over the course of the summer) but that her family is trying to ignore that inevitability.
Winston, the Dog (poem: "Beside the Waterfall")
Winston is implied to be the narrator’s dog in the poem “Beside the Waterfall”. While it is never explicitly stated, the narrator is the one calling him, knowing his name and apparently going on a morning walk with him. During the walk, Winston finds the dead body of a baby deer and, without hesitation, rips off its head to eat it.
The narrator describes him as “the big dog” (l. 2) and his physical actions suggest that he is fairly strong. Even though, the narrator details his gruesome behavior towards the deer, he also stresses Winston’s “kind eyes” (l. 29) and even goes so far as to describe Winston and the baby deer in a similar manner, with both having a “flower-like” face (l. 20, 31-32).
However, immediately after this comparison, the narrator calls him looking like “the red sun” (l. 32). The color reminds of blood and violence. For the narrator, Winston is both a violent and a gentle and kind creature.
The Cleaning Lady (poem: “Singapore”)
In the poem “Singapore” the narrator meets the woman responsible for cleaning the women’s restroom in the airport in Singapore.
The narrator walks in on the woman kneeling in front of a toilet, cleaning it and is instantly shocked and disgusted by witnessing such a humiliating moment. In her view, the woman is embarrassed as well, and they can hardly look each other into the face.
For the narrator, this moment has a profound impact on her understanding of poetry, as she realizes that a poem can and should not only portray the good and successful and happy moments in a life but that those bad moments are what really makes a person.
While the narrator is clearly shocked, she never speaks negatively of the woman, but instead calls her beautiful and begins to compare her to nature (in an attempt to turn this moment into conventional poetry).
They both eventually smile at each other and the woman continues with her work while the narrator watches her, contemplating about her happiness and contentment with life and expressing the hope that the woman will eventually rise from this position.
In the last stanza, the narrator remarks how the woman’s smile wasn’t genuine, but for the narrator’s sake, which implies that she did see unhappiness with the situation in her.
