Woman Waiting (3)

Woman Waiting

Over the gray, massed blunder of her face light hung crudely and apologetic sight crossed in a hurry. Asking very little, her eyes were patiently placed there. Dress loved nothing and wandered away wherever possible, needing its own character. Used to the stories, we wise children made pleasant pictures of her when alive, till someone who knew told us it was never so. Next, wisely waited to see the hidden dancer, the expected flare leaping through that fog of flesh, but no one ever did. In a last wisdom, conceived of a moment love lit her like a star and the star burned out. Interested friends said this had never happened. "Woman Waiting" is about a woman who has a very humble, even unattractive appearance, having a "gray, massed blunder of (a) face." In the second stanza there's a shift, and the reader realizes that this woman is fictional, and that the children hear stories about her.  The woman seems to represent the disillusionment that children face when they grow up and "interested friends" tell them that certain things aren't actually true, like Santa or things like that. There's a few instances of alliteration in this poem: "patiently placed" in line 4, "wisely waited" in line 10, and "the expected flare leaping through that fog/of flesh" in lines 11-12. "love lit her like a star" is a similie. "Dress loved nothing and wondered away/wherever possible, needing its own character" personifies dress.