Thomas And Beulah Poem Analysis

The collection about Thomas and Beulah was my favorite of the three that we read. I really enjoyed reading the poems about there relationship and trying to understand the dynamics within it. After reading it and giving it some thought, I believe that Thomas and Beulah had a marriage full of love. However I also believe that they lacked something else very important to any relationships especially marriage, respect. I do not think that this was a conscious or deliberate choice made by either I just think that after years of being together they lost sight of what was really important. Tomas started out his life as a young and vibrant young man. However, he changed at a young age. The death of his close friend Lem left him with a life full of

Thomas was a hard worker his whole life, the poems talk about him at work and he reminisces about how he has spent his life working and providing for his family. In the poem titled, “The Zeppelin Factory” we see and understand just how hard he worked. “Thomas wanted to sit/down and cry”(pg. 24, 7-8), and again later in the poem, “ Thomas at night/in the vacant lot:/Here I am, intact/and faint hearted./Thomas hiding/ his heart with his hat” (pg. 24, 25-30). He gave up many things in life to be a domesticated family man. I think a lot of men end up doing so, out of love for they 're families. I do not think that Thomas resents his choice do so, however I think he struggles with it. We see Thomas struggle with these choices in the poem, “Compendium”. “He gave up fine cordials and/his hounds-tooth vest./He became a sweet tenor/in the gospel choir.” (pg. 28,

However, growing up Beulah, like most young girls had her own hopes and dreams but when she met Thomas she consciously or subconsciously moved on from those dreams. Making this choice left Beulah with a life filled of being someones mother and wife. I think many women struggle with keeping there own identity after marriage and having kids. In the poem, “The Great Palaces of Versailles” Beulah is stuck in the back of a dress shop and is fantasizing about Paris, one of the dreams she moved on from. She took lining from the rich girls clothing to use it to mend one of her own skirts, she knows that she may be found out if anyone sees the under part of her skirt so she sits with her legs crossed and contains to fantasizes about another life she could have had. “Beulah remembers how/even autumn could lean into a settee/with her ankles crossed, sighing/‘I need a man who’ll protect me/while smoking her cigarette down to the very end” (pg. 63, 34-38). These lines make Beulah seem unimpressed with the life she ended up living. I think once she began to feel this way she forgot to really appreciate Thomas as a husband, a father and a man. It is this that, left them both unhappy and left them longing for