Poem Analysis: Old Baltimore

The poem is a reflection on an incident in the narrator’s childhood that has had an effect on his life. It starts out with a light-hearted, gleeful tone. The narrator is traveling in Baltimore, he is excited to be there, expressing hopefulness for the experiences he will have in this new place. The mood shifts in the second stanza, when the narrator notices a “Baltimorean” looking at him and smiles at the Baltimorean, but the Baltimorean sticks his tongue out and calls the narrator a “Nigger.” The tone in the last stanza is sombre compared to the beginning gleeful tone. The narrator switches to the present and reflects on how, out of the whole time spent in Baltimore, this is the only experience that he remembers.

As for the structure and

It could be because he was in Baltimore when he was a child, and therefore it is old to him and he remembers it fondly as a childhood memory, but since he says his only memory from Baltimore is an unpleasant one, this doesn’t seem that likely. It could be used sarcastically to express contempt for Baltimore, but this would contrast with the gleeful tone in the beginning of the poem. Ultimately, it was likely used to express familiarity and in order to make the poem flow better. The narrator repeats the word Baltimore often, so there should be importance to the fact that it was in

It could be a reference to spending his youth to old age there, since spring could be a metaphor for the beginning of his life, and winter the end. This would make the meaning of “That’s all that I remember” more profound. One of the themes of the poem is the feeling of hopefulness when facing new places and experiences. This is contrasted with disappointment when the narrator realizes that this place is not perfect. Another theme is the theme of reflection and memory. The poem is a reflection of the narrator on an experience that greatly affected them. The fact that the unpleasant experience is the only memory that stuck with the narrator suggests that it was an influential event in their life and that one bad experience can sometimes taint our perspective on a larger picture.

The author’s intent in this poem is to make the reader think about their own language and how they talk to others and the effect it will have on others, as one wonders how the Baltimorean’s words affected the narrator. Also, in the poem both the narrator and most likely the other character in the story are young children, so one wonders how the child came to use such language and treat others this way. Since it is quite possible he learned such behavior from society around him, one message of the poem is how, as a society, it’s important to set an example for children to