In the poem In Creve Coeur, Missouri, Rosanna Warren facilitates the use of negative imagery, similes and specific vocabulary to describe the attempt of a heroic firefighter to save a nameless young girl. Warren starts off introducing the evidence of the circumstances by means of a photograph taken by a photographer on the scene. The poet describes the victim as a “rag of body” describing her as too soon from the line and too pale. Not once throughout the poem did Warren name the victim and this leads me to wonder if it was because she did not survive. It led me to question whether it is easier for the public to accept the fatality because without a name, the circumstances become impersonal. Without a name, the public knows nothing of her family, her friends, what school she went to or what her favorite color was. On the contrary, Warren does at a later point in the poem almost plead that the firefighter “tell us that she will stand again, quarrel and misbehave”. By denoting the young victim with qualities of a child misbehaving and quarreling, made me feel sympathy for this young girl because I was able to relate those qualities to a younger cousin.
Throughout the poem, when Rosanna Warren describes the firefighter she consistently used words that caused me to put all dependency on the firefighter to save the young victim. She described the fireman as a strong man, almost commanding him to save the victim by stating “you’ve done it again and again”. She also describes the victim putting her fist onto his “professional” chest giving him status. Throughout the entire poem, I was convinced the firefighter would save the victim and she would survive, so when she didn’t it was a surprise. Towards the end of the poem Warren determines that the snapshot won a surprise yet subtly mentions that the victim could not be revived. The ending made me reflect back to the beginning when Warren named the photographer an amateur, and whether there was a sense of bitterness and sarcasm in her tone.
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