The+Whipping+**

The old woman across the way is whipping the boy again and shouting to the neighborhood her goodness and his wrongs.
 * The Whipping**

Wildly he crashes through elephant ears, pleads in dusty zinnias, while she in spite of crippling fat pursues and corners him.

She strikes and strikes the shrilly circling boy till the stick breaks in her hand. His tears are rainy weather to woundlike memories:

My head gripped in bony vise of knees, the writhing struggle to wrench free, the blows, the fear worse than blows that hateful

Words could bring, the face that I no longer knew or loved. . . Well, it is over now, it is over, and the boy sobs in his room,

And the woman leans muttering against a tree, exhausted, purged— avenged in part for lifelong hidings she has had to bear.

- The poem revolves around the speaker's neighbor and how she constantly hits the young boy. We know that this isn't an unusual occurrence, because the speaker states that the boy is being whipped "again". - Hayden utilizes strong imagery so that the audience is able to form a clear illustration of both plot and setting. This also triggers our emotions of pity and sorrow for the young boy very early on in the poem. - At the end of stanza three and the rest of stanza four and five we learn more about the speaker and gain compassion and sympathy for him. - As he tells the story of the young boy's beating he states 'his tears are rainy weather to woundlike memories', letting the audience know that he was also beaten as a young boy. - He states that 'the blows, the fear worse than blows that hateful', telling the readers that it the fear of being hit is worse than the action itself. - 'the face that I no longer knew or loved', implying that the speaker did at one point love the person who had abused him. - Even though it is obvious that the audience is meant to feel pity for the young boy and the speaker, the woman is not entirely seen as a terrible person. She 'avenged in part for lifelong hidings she has had to bear', implying that she was also beaten at a young age. Hayden seems to explore the idea of how one will treat others the way they have been treated.
 * Analysis:**