The poem is based on the painting American gothic by Grant
Wood. Stone’s poem reflects on the
things that are not in the actual painting. He writes about the animals that are probably on that farm,
and how the farmer’s triumph is immortalized. I find the line “arrested in the name of art” to be a fun
play on words and the general word choice to be a bit tongue in cheek. It is implied that the farmer is
impatient and wanting to tend to his crops and the lady is trying to remember
if she left the stove on or not. I
thought those little elements help add some fun to the overall poem.
The lines of
the poem are all a fairly terse 3-5 words long and I think that pacing helps
move the reader briskly from each idea to the next. Each grouping’s idea is broken up with a short aside in the
middle that can be left out and still retain the meaning, but without them
deflate the poem.
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