Brewster also vividly conveys the importance of places through the use of metaphors and the nature of uniformity in the city life. She describes the city of the “museum smell” and “art with a guidebook
and “smell of subway”. By showing all of these daily concerns, the poet emphasizes how the people in the cty grows up to be affected by the environment around them. “museum smell” suggests the lack of creativity and “art” connects with “guide book” which acts as a metaphor for the path of life, shows how art- the impulse for creativity, knowledge and freedom have been prevented or blocked. However, Brewster seems not to criticize the city life as is present in her tone during this stanza is seen to be quite calm- as she only lists the places out on paper with an ounce of thought. This makes the reader feel that the poet has respect for all places people grows up in and through the use of mathematical vocabularies and scientific vocabularies, through “tidily plotted” or “chromium-plated”, Brewster is simply stating the facts of the city lifestyle and how people can be greatly affect by it having a uniform life- furthermore conveys the importance of places.
Brewster finally conveys the importance of places of where she grew up in- the countryside, through the use of effective structures and imageries. The second stanza shifts to the middle of the line and the first line of the second stanza starts from where she finishes. Not only does the poet wants to start where she finishes, she’s also highlighting the fact that she jumps location and says that there’s still a faint link between her and the city life as she begins “where I come from, people carry woods in their minds.” She describes her hometown as of places where “wooden farm houses, in need of paint” and “yard where hens and chicken circle about.” This implies the beauty of the nature of her birthplace where no matter how old the “wooden farm houses” are, it’s there to solely serve its purpose- contrasting to city life where everything is new and attractive. There is still space for footprints of animals to coexist with human and also where “battered schoolhouses behind which violets grows”. This line really proves her love for her birthplace as Brewster means beauty can be everywhere, out of anything despite how “battered” the schoolhouses are. All of these imageries help the poet to enhance the place where she comes from- even more significant and impressive than city life in stanza 1, further vividly conveys how her place can affect her as greatly as everyone else and how she never erases the image of “wood” in her mind.
In conclusion, Brewster has weaved an intricate web of meanings and intepretations in the reader’s mind- especially signifying the places where we grew up in. Brewster have said in her last line which I consider to be most important: “a door in the mind open, and there blows a frosty wind from fields of snow”. By using the door in the mind as a metaphor, the poet is saying nostalgia and memories coming back to her, and where “frosty wind” in her hometown, Canada freezing in the winter, she’s brave enough to even admit the flaws in her own birthplace. But through all of these , the place she comes have helped her to become what she is today, and this makes the reader not only nostalgic, but also a sense of lovingness towards that “place”.
