Analysis of A World Where News Traveled Slowly by Lavinia Greenlaw Essa

Analysis of A World Where News Traveled Slowly by Lavinia Greenlaw Lavinia Greenlaw’s nostalgic poem â€Å"A World Where News Traveled Slowly,† captivates readers with its brilliant description of the evolution of communication. The poem is chronologically ordered, giving us the effect of how communication moved through the ages. The modern poem is written in three stanzas each describing a different form of communication. Starting from the time when electronics never existed to the current information age. The fashion is which the poem is written, takes the reader on a journey that lasts centuries. The first stanza talks about the old fashioned way of communication. People living far away carefully sent handwritten letters to each other. These letters were taken by horse rider to their destination. It is implied, importantly that these letters were mainly sent â€Å"while the head had to listen, the heart could wait.† That is at extremely important times and not just for insignificant banter. These lines imply that personal letters were not the prime objective of the post. It was for example at important times such as during war, that people sent mail. The second stanza is maybe a few hundred years later, in the seventeen hundreds, during the â€Å"French Revolution.† It describes a new quicker way of communication. This is still old fashioned and unheard of for the modern day man. It is the time of the â€Å"telegraph,† and the â€Å"semaphore.† This stanza implies that it was not an easy task and was yet difficult and hard to manage. â€Å"It still took three men with all their variables†¦.to read record and pass the message on.† This indicates that comm... ...e so close, we are still not. These messages sent to us so quickly make us feel as if we are incredibly close to each other. The title of this poem describes to us that the author thinks that maybe it would be better if we lived in a world where news traveled slowly. This poem gives us the feeling that the poet believes that technology is both a good and bad thing. Even though it gives as instantaneous messages, these very messages importance is lost. The author feels that the smoothness and speed of the current age is not in keeping with the way we talk to each other. It is implied that the world is now sending a barrage of messages that are not weighted with enough importance by the recipient. Maybe people would consider communication with much more importance if we resided in â€Å"A World Where News Traveled Slowly.†