The Halo That Would Not Light

So far, this is my favorite poem that I have read for poetry responses and that we have discussed as a class. It is haunting, powerful, and very moving. When I first read the poem, I was confused at what the author was writing about. Then, after reading it a few more times and with the help of the class discussion, I figured out that the poem was talking about a child who had died. I really like the beginning because it reminds me of the classic nursery story of babies being delivered by storks. "When, after many years, the raptor beak Let loose of you, He dropped your tiny body In the scarab colored hallow...." Where the raptor is the stork and instead of being dropped on a porch step, the child is dropped into a grave. My other favorite part was "Tonight the wind is hover- Hunting as the leather seats of swings go back And forth with no one in them...." This part was the most vivid for me because I remember loving to swing on the swings as child and when the author, Lucie Brock-Broido, talks about them being vacant, it really hit home. I also really loved the title: everyone says children are little angels, so The Halo That Would Not Light reminds me of a fallen angel, a child who never got to live.