“In The Long Hall” is a poem written by Hayden Carruth.

There are many similes and

metaphors that can be pulled out from each read. It’s the kind of work that you need to pay close
attention to the grammar and poetic language to be able to understand and decipher the hidden
meanings and intentions of the author. The first metaphor that spoke to me was in line 24 to 26
where the author says “He worked as fast as he could with trembling fingers in futility, in frenzy,
in despair.”. The first thought that came to mind was the metaphor, “if at first you don’t succeed
try try again”, because the one thing we don’t see the author do is throw in the towel. After
reading it a few more times I picked up on many other hidden meanings and similes; the author
could be talking about a failing relationship, or complacency leading to being overwhelmed.
Another good metaphor for “In the Long Hall” is, “don’t bite off more than you can chew”. The
author is speaking in third person and begins the poem by telling the story of a man that has an
awareness of a flaw, or problem, in the weaving of a tapestry. But instead of fixing the issue,
“he” chooses to continue moving forward with the construction of his tapestry. Due to the
overlooked flaw it catches up with him, only to eventually undo all of the progress he has made.
By the time he makes a decision to go back and correct the previous mistakes, the flaw has
become too great for him to keep up with the corrections. It starts to unravel from both ends of
the tapestry to a point where it now has caused more stress, work, and energy than it would have
if he instead had simply backtracked and taken more time to correct the flaws when they were
first noticed. I feel the author gives strong references to the benefits of putting your all into
something rather than breezing through a task and leaving known errors. I’m also fond of the
grammar the author uses. When he says “his fingers too weak” and “his hands were too slow”
the author is showing us a sense of being overwhelmed and unable to catch up with the
increasingly unraveling of all the progress he has made. When the author says “At first he didn’t
mind it”, the author gives a type of justification for overlooking the noticed loose ends and
broken threads. But by the time we get to the end of the poem the importance of those small
unperfected details have become something with much greater impact than he initially expected.
Thus leaving him “up creek without a paddle”.

Hey Shanice, I love the metaphor "life is like a box of chocolates", and how you showed its
relation to this poem.  I’m also fond of the grammar the author uses.  When he says “his fingers
too weak” and “his hands were too slow” the author is showing us a sense of being overwhelmed
and unable to catch up with the increased unraveling of all the progress he has made.  When the
author says “At first he didn’t mind it”, the author gives a type of justification for overlooking
the noticed loose ends and broken threads.  But by the time we get to the end of the poem the
importance of those small details have become something with much greater impact than he
initially expected.  Thus leaving him “up creek without a paddle”.