How to Write About Poetry

Paraphrase of “The Whipping” (727) by Robert Hayden

The old woman who lives across the street is beating her boy again and shouting to anyone who will listen what good she does for the boy and what wrong he repays her with in turn. When he moves wildly through the plants in the garden, she persists in chasing despite her morbid obesity. She hits him with her stick so often as she moves repeatedly around him that the stick finally breaks. His tears make me remember the beatings I suffered.

I recall my own head caught in the relentless grip formed by knees. I fought to escape their grip. I remember the beatings. I feared far worse the threats made against me, far worse harm than the blows actually delivered. I ceased to recognize my tormentor though once I had loved him (her).

Well, the woman’s violent pursuit of the boy across the street has finally ended. The boy is in his room crying. The woman, exhausted by the sheer physical effort and cleansed somehow of her rage, leans against a tree. She feels she has gotten revenge for the beatings that were once inflicted on her.