Discuss any elements that you percieve in the poem and tell us what the poem is

Question

Discuss any elements that you percieve in the poem and tell us what the poem is about.

Pearl District

in the house on irving street i made no noise. the house remembers. those evening: rain. then, a description of rain. a book about the making of a city. it goes: the machine inside you. mornings biking to the pearl district, the scent of barley in the air, i felt like throwing up. from a pay phone, i told a friend i was landlocked. there was the colombia river. there was a film about brutalism. i wondered how we survive. in the rose garden i was inescapable. another word: ashamed. another: lonely. there were names for roses. i could see the stone edifice. there was a civic space and a blueprint for increased mobility. love has horizontal. in the streets, people subdivided and it seemed possible to believe in them. when the sining began i was already inside. there was a clock in the refrigerator. there were curtains to the milky way. i swore i had been there before.

this poem seems very random to me and i have no idea how to interpret it.

Explanation / Answer

Pearl (Middle English: Perle) is a late 14th-century Middle English poem  With elements of medieval allegory and dream vision genre, the poem is written in a North-West Midlands variety of Middle English and highly—though not consistently—alliterative; there is a complex system of stanza linking and other stylistic features.

About poem: A father, mourning the loss of his "perle [pearl]", falls asleep in a garden; in his dream he encounters the 'Pearl-maiden'—a beautiful and heavenly woman—standing across a stream in a strange landscape. In response to his questioning and attempts to obtain her, she answers with Christian doctrine. Eventually she shows him an image of the Heavenly City, and herself as part of the retinue of Christ the Lamb. When the Dreamer attempts to cross the stream, he awakens suddenly from his dream and reflects on its significance.

About Element that I perceive: Allegory has been used widely throughout history in all forms of art, largely because it can readily illustrate complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.

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