Lucas Soard Assignment 1

Ludvigson makes a direct reference to John Donne’s “Canonization”. “For God’s sakes hold your tongue, and let me love,” says the narrator’s father. This allusion to the poem follows a lengthy description of a night out between the speaker’s parents. After a lengthy night of conversation, dealing with heavy concepts and topics like the American Dream, the father tells his wife to be quiet, and to allow the couple to love each other in silence.

The pair was so involved in their conversation that “Their coffee’s getting cold but they hardly notice.” The issues that faced the nation were all-consuming in this way. Finished in 1942, Nighthawks the painting deals with issues of the oncoming war. Many Americans saw their country as a bright spot surrounded by an oncoming darkness. Ludvigson imagines her parents discussing the war and other heavy topics during her early childhood, but when that time is over, they just walk and love as the cleansing summer rain begins.