"The Red Bandana"
Consider the ambiguity of the red bandanna as a symbol; it helps characterize the speaker's sense of herself, as distinguished from the male addressee (the red takes on different meanings in these contexts) and also helps characterize their relationship (the nexus/pattern--red bandanna, bull fight, blood sport,etc, you are noticing --what other images fall into this pattern and how, specifically, do they characterize the addressee and the relationship between him and the speaker? The imagery of stanza 5 takes us beyond that relationship). Note the image contrasts, and difference in tone/attitude, in the speaker's descriptions of herself and the addressee, and how that tempers the final stanza
"The Hitchhikers"
Stanzas 2 and 3 provide the personal/emotional foregrounding for the what the hitchhikers--it's really their heads that is the focus--and the berries "mean"; what role they play in the speaker's psychology. The imagery of the long stanzas 2 & 4 should also help explain why these berries, and the ash, can be at once beautiful and painful(stanza 6)--"ash" (the name of the tree) is suggestive as well. Note these various image patterns: the color red, the it's connection go flame/burning, the hitchhikers' sun-burned heads, the berries, ash, blood, the Phoenix (an allusion that suggests a psychological movement contrary to what the speaker is going through); the different senses of "burning"; the contrasting imagery of diamonds and gold (stanza 4); how all this leads to the imagery of the emotional sacrifice of the second-to-last stanza--how stanzas 2 & 4 ground all this, as I say--and the irony and humor of the last stanza--i.e., the berries, the ash tree, the hitchhikers have a deeply psychological, rather than simply objective, existence for the speaker--someone getting in the car with her would certainly not know what he was getting into... also, see the exercise on BB
The hitchhikers suggest the speaker's own needs and feelings of failure, as well as whatever caused that relationship to fail, which the speaker blames herself for, and not being able to understand that--the hitchhikers, then, as representing the unknown she fears in herself, and not wanting to inflict that on someone else, could be read in the final lines...the berries again are certainly ambiguous, since they suggest both the beauty and pain that is the emotional remnant of that relationship (note the contrasting images of the diamonds and gold).
Why she doesn't pick up the hitchhikers is really all about the role they play, unwittingly (the humor of the last 2 lines), in her own psycho-drama--what lies beneath all those superficial "excuses." The car, of course, at 60, 70, etc. mph--no matter how fast--is no escape--she carries the sacrificial alter with her... (can't run away from your self...can't out run the hitchhikers who are, of course, always still--psychologically, imaginatively--there).
"The Photos"
The intriguing line "I have killed my children" refers to the myth of Medea, which has a rather complex relation to the poem, somewhat flipping the reality of the mother's situation, but then, there is always this dissociation, dis-parity, between reality and art--consider looking into the myth a bit more. The relationship of mother-daughter is the thing, how it haunts, and the emptiness which is a "destiny" for us all.
Consider the ambiguity of the red bandanna as a symbol; it helps characterize the speaker's sense of herself, as distinguished from the male addressee (the red takes on different meanings in these contexts) and also helps characterize their relationship (the nexus/pattern--red bandanna, bull fight, blood sport,etc, you are noticing --what other images fall into this pattern and how, specifically, do they characterize the addressee and the relationship between him and the speaker? The imagery of stanza 5 takes us beyond that relationship). Note the image contrasts, and difference in tone/attitude, in the speaker's descriptions of herself and the addressee, and how that tempers the final stanza
"The Hitchhikers"
Stanzas 2 and 3 provide the personal/emotional foregrounding for the what the hitchhikers--it's really their heads that is the focus--and the berries "mean"; what role they play in the speaker's psychology. The imagery of the long stanzas 2 & 4 should also help explain why these berries, and the ash, can be at once beautiful and painful(stanza 6)--"ash" (the name of the tree) is suggestive as well. Note these various image patterns: the color red, the it's connection go flame/burning, the hitchhikers' sun-burned heads, the berries, ash, blood, the Phoenix (an allusion that suggests a psychological movement contrary to what the speaker is going through); the different senses of "burning"; the contrasting imagery of diamonds and gold (stanza 4); how all this leads to the imagery of the emotional sacrifice of the second-to-last stanza--how stanzas 2 & 4 ground all this, as I say--and the irony and humor of the last stanza--i.e., the berries, the ash tree, the hitchhikers have a deeply psychological, rather than simply objective, existence for the speaker--someone getting in the car with her would certainly not know what he was getting into... also, see the exercise on BB
The hitchhikers suggest the speaker's own needs and feelings of failure, as well as whatever caused that relationship to fail, which the speaker blames herself for, and not being able to understand that--the hitchhikers, then, as representing the unknown she fears in herself, and not wanting to inflict that on someone else, could be read in the final lines...the berries again are certainly ambiguous, since they suggest both the beauty and pain that is the emotional remnant of that relationship (note the contrasting images of the diamonds and gold).
Why she doesn't pick up the hitchhikers is really all about the role they play, unwittingly (the humor of the last 2 lines), in her own psycho-drama--what lies beneath all those superficial "excuses." The car, of course, at 60, 70, etc. mph--no matter how fast--is no escape--she carries the sacrificial alter with her... (can't run away from your self...can't out run the hitchhikers who are, of course, always still--psychologically, imaginatively--there).
"The Photos"
The intriguing line "I have killed my children" refers to the myth of Medea, which has a rather complex relation to the poem, somewhat flipping the reality of the mother's situation, but then, there is always this dissociation, dis-parity, between reality and art--consider looking into the myth a bit more. The relationship of mother-daughter is the thing, how it haunts, and the emptiness which is a "destiny" for us all.
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