To reflect on something is to seek a deeper meaning. So when are people most likely to reflect on their own lives, when they are walking through a busy city filled with loud people and roaring noises or when they are alone in a quiet room? People’s thoughts are most likely to wander when they are at peace with limited distractions. In Carl Sandburg’s poem “Window”, he describes how random distractions disrupt the process of self reflection by using the image of a train ride at night.
“Window” is a simple poem with a complex meaning. It can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the reader. The literal image readers get from this poem is looking out the window of a train at nighttime. However, by reflecting on this image, the meaning…show more content… When reading “Window”, one would imagine they are looking out a train window only to see nothing but the night and its endless darkness. Carl Sandburg describes the nighttime as, “a great, dark, soft thing” (line 2). Especially right before dawn, darkness is vast and does not seem to have an ending or a beginning which is why it would be so great. Despite that, seeing absolutely nothing but maybe one’s reflection in the train window would not be intimidating but rather calming, according to Sandburg. This is why he describes the darkness from the train window as a soft thing. Based on this, the reader’s image of darkness becomes peaceful and…show more content… It is a tool that helps people see in the dark. Carl Sandburg describes light as a violent thing that takes away from the soft darkness. When one is at peace with the darkness the light can come as shocking. Sandburg describes how quickly light can interrupt the night by saying, “broken across with slashes of light” (line 3). With this image, readers are left confused as their thoughts of only the night have been broken. The light would be quick to come and go, and it would hurt the eyes of someone who has adjusted to the dark. It is counterproductive to the darkness, eliminating the good and