The poem “Dew” by Kay Ryan was generously given to me by Professor Bannett as I was unable to find any poems on the trains I use to get to school. My initial reaction to reading the poem was “While this poem is nice, it’s meaning seems very general”. The art is very simple, it’s a green stem with green leaves. Green is usually synonymous with life, so I thought I think the leaves represent individual people. I believe that this poem was chosen for train riders, because it represents every day life. The speaker appears to an outside point of view, this poem has no first person or third. The speaker is more invested in the scene before him, probably watching people walking around in front of him.

The subject is plants which I believe to be analogy for humans. “But unattached and subject to their weight”, this could mean that all people have different goals in life even when they are working together. The theme is life. People come and go in your life every day, some contribute to your day and others are just random strangers. Yes, I think that “Dew” is accessible for general readers since it’s meaning can be interpreted in many ways. Some questions I have would be: Where was Kay Ryan when she was writing this poem ? What inspired her ? Why is she being so cryptic ?