Life can be hard and cruel at times, but the human spirit allows us to preserve and make it thru harsh days over and over again with hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The poem “March” by Louise Gluck demonstrates much of that angst that we can can feel about the world around us. The poem describes to the reader how dreams can be crushed by the realities of the world and how hard the daily struggle can be, but there is hope hidden amongst these lines as well. The central theme of “March” is that the perseverance of the human spirit and how life finds a way to overcome the daunting challenges and predicaments it finds itself placed in, and this theme is conveyed through the analysis of various poetic devices used by the author. Louise Gluck through the use of symbolism is able to produce part of the theme behind her poem, and that theme that is produced…show more content… The importance of the persona mentioning a dream that was never realized is to point out just how cruel life can be. Next the writer uses imagery as the poetic device in describing her dreams. The persona is speaking of her dream to leave the mountains and live by the sea when she adds “Only the smell of the field, when all she wanted/ was the smell of the sea, of disappearance.” (LL. 30-31). It was in that line that the persona acknowledges that her dreams are what hold the power to make it possible to forget all the difficulties she faces in life. When the persona makes mention of the sea to her neighbor the personas dreams are immediately shot down when the neighbor replies in response to the ocean “It was a sad story, nothing worked out at all. / The lovers part. The sea hammers the shore, the mark each wave leaves/ wiped out by the wave that follows.” (LL 43-45). It is with imagery in those lines that the personas dreams of the ocean are quickly