Poetry Response: The Gift

This poem was very simple. It kept my attention. I of course picked one of the shorter ones, the long ones bore me. But this poem focused around such a simple problem in life - getting a splinter. While her father was pulling her splinter out, he was telling her a story in a calm low voice to distract her from the pain. In the middle of the story, he removed the blade that the author thought they would die from. This poem could easily be a metaphor. Obviously ( i assume the author is a girl) this girl was experiencing pain and she thought she was in serious harm from it, but her father, or it even could be a representation of a dream or hope, distracted from this pain and eventually lifted it. Looking back on the experience, she doesnt even remember the pain from the splinter. She remembers her father's low voice telling that tale. Ending the passage by saying "a well." She couldve meant that his voice had a deep sense of depth and meaning. It was never ending - always growing - always going deeper. i just realized that the title of the poem is "a gift." This poem could also just be a commemoration to her father. Her father made even the most painful situations a gift, because of his compassion and the depth that he shared with her.