The Halo That Would Not Light Analysis

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Lucie Brock-Broido’s “The Halo That Would Not Light” is a poem about the loss of childhood and its inevitable end. When one is born “the (raptor’s) beak (lets) loose of you” (ll 1-2), and drops your tiny body into the “scarab-colored hollow” (ll 3-4). The raptor letting the tiny body loose into the scarab colored hollow alludes to the old nursery stories of the stork delivering babies in cribs for their new families. When children are young they often have positive outlooks on the world and believe that everything is possible, like the magic in the “hollow hat” (l 13) or the “cardboard box” (l 5). They believe strongly in all in possible wonders of the world and it isn't until their “endless childhood” is finally “done” that they loose the

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