The Halo That Would Not Light Essay

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Lucie Brock-Broido’s poem, “The Halo That Would Not Light,” reflects the fleeting nature of childhood and the innocence that accompanies it. “Halo,” as used in the title holds the connotations of purity and innocence, the same purity and innocence that occupy the adolescence of many. Once one surpasses childhood, he may not regain the innocence, or more aptly, the blissful ignorance that he once had. When a person reaches the point of adulthood, he loses the power to reignite this metaphorical “halo” and recover his adolescent purity. Broido utilizes allusion to give rise to the sense of abandonment and devastation that plague children as they are set free by their parents and pushed full-force into adulthood. Broido begins the poem with, …show more content…

The aforementioned imagery of a baby being left at the steps of an orphanage in a cardboard box in comparison to a new adult being left alone to tackle the real world by his parents helps create the tragic tone that manifests itself in the young adult’s feelings of abandonment. The irony of the parents acting as the stork to deliver their children to the real world in lines 1-2, instead of the basic stork that is known for delivering a child to his parents further adds to the tragic tone that encapsulates the first four stanzas. The uninhabited swingset seats rocking back and forth in the wind in lines 9-10 symbolize the desertion of now-knowingly simplistic items that caused the young adults’ enjoyment in their youth and the solemn longing that these young adults have to regain this enjoyment once more. The new adults long for the mysticality and wonder that they used to feel when they were children with thriving imaginations. With adulthood comes a departure from imagination and a greater step towards logic and reason. The scarves that seemed to never end as the magician flung them out of his hat no longer baffle the adult because what he once thought was magic is now nothing more than deception. To be an adult means to rely on yourself to figure things out in order to survive in the real world, and in turn, you end up

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