Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Robert Wrigley’s "Those Riches" is a vivid narrative poem that captures the raw energy, rebellion, and despair of youth, set against a backdrop of economic hardship and urban desolation. Through its dynamic storytelling, rich imagery, and emotional depth, the poem explores themes of loss, defiance, and the search for meaning amid chaos.

The poem begins with a poignant reference to abandonment: "The week after your father left / you still carried his note in your wallet." This detail establishes the speaker?s companion—a friend or sibling—as someone grappling with emotional and financial instability. The father’s absence looms over the narrative as an unspoken wound, shaping the characters’ actions and attitudes throughout. The reference to the bank repossessing their car underscores their precarious situation, positioning them on the edge of desperation.

Wrigley’s use of second-person perspective invites the reader into an intimate recounting of events. The narrative unfolds as a shared memory, rich with sensory details. The decrepit family sedan becomes a symbol of defiance and frustration, its "feeble six" struggling to keep up with the narrator’s companion’s reckless driving. The description of pounding the dash and "wringing from its feeble six every stinking, oil-ridden mile per hour" reflects both a literal and metaphorical exhaustion—a car and a spirit being pushed to their limits.

The setting amplifies the poem?s tone of industrial bleakness and urban decay. The imagery of "great flames...above the foundries and steel mills" evokes a hellish landscape, contrasting sharply with the youthful bravado of the narrator and their companion. Gaslight Square, once a vibrant cultural hub, serves as a destination that promises escape but delivers conflict. The streets teem with "soul and blues, the smack jazz," a rich cultural tapestry that the narrator’s companion refuses to acknowledge, highlighting his emotional detachment and simmering anger.

The encounter with the prostitute marks a climactic moment, revealing the tension between vulnerability and aggression. The narrator?s companion’s reaction—spitting in the woman’s face—is a stark act of hostility, born perhaps from frustration, shame, or a desperate assertion of control in a world that feels uncontrollable. The retaliation from the prostitutes, culminating in the shattering of the car?s windshield, is a chaotic and violent response that mirrors the larger social and economic forces bearing down on the characters. The image of the "sagging honeycomb of safety glass" reflects both physical destruction and the fragility of their circumstances.

Despite—or perhaps because of—their misfortune, the narrator and his companion find a sense of exhilaration in their escape. The act of removing the shattered windshield and driving home "with the summer highway wind in our faces" transforms the scene from one of despair to one of liberation. The closing image of the car’s interior, littered with shards of glass that "flashed under streetlights, / in the full of the moon, like a carload of diamonds," is both ironic and poignant. What might be seen as a mess of destruction becomes, in their eyes, a treasure—a moment of beauty amid hardship, a symbol of resilience and fleeting joy.

Wrigley’s language is visceral and immediate, drawing the reader into the intensity of the experience. The poem’s narrative arc moves from the weight of abandonment and economic struggle to an act of rebellion that culminates in an unexpected epiphany. The juxtaposition of harsh realities—economic hardship, familial abandonment, and urban decay—with moments of beauty and humor underscores the complexity of the human spirit, especially in youth.

"Those Riches" ultimately portrays the paradox of finding fleeting joy in destruction, of transforming despair into moments of connection and vitality. The poem does not romanticize hardship but instead captures the raw, unvarnished truths of its characters’ lives. It is a testament to the resilience of youth and the power of memory to find meaning in even the most chaotic and tumultuous moments.

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