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Summary Of Bruce Springsteen's Poem, Nebraska

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Ever wonder why a villain behave like a villain? Well, according to the speaker in the poem “Nebraska,” written by Bruce Springsteen, “there’s just a meanness in this world” (24). I found this poem truly fascinating because I’m still figuring out who “her” is, mentioned in this poem as I’m typing. “Nebraska” is a dramatic monologue, which is a subgenre of poem that – by residing somewhere in between lyric and dramatic poetry – can teach us more about both, according to the Introduction to Literature textbook. Everyone can read poems, but we sometimes analyze it differently. “Nebraska” can be seen as an easy poem to interpret because this poem can be read and understood literally. The poem starts with “I saw her standin’ on her front lawn” (1). When I first read this line, I immediately assumed the noun, ‘her’, is a woman. If we were reading this from a novel, readers would all assume that ‘her’ is a person. However, since this is a poem, ‘her’ may certainly be an object. I didn’t really question myself about who the real identity of ‘her’ was until I re-read the poem three times. The second line is a continuation from the first line; “just twirlin’ her baton” (2). After reading these two lines, I thought to myself, the speaker is referring to a woman, …show more content…

The ‘sir’ was included to emphasize that the speaker was talking to someone. When the next couple of lines are read, readers will catch on and understand who the ‘sir’ could possibly be, which I believe is a Sheriff in this case. They went for a ride and “ten innocent people died” (4). At this point, I wasn’t sure how they died. It might have been a crime committed by the speaker and her or these ten people just died when they went for a ride. The next line, “from the town of Lincoln, Nebraska” (5), introduces the spatial setting of the poem. Maybe the reason why the title of the poem is Nebraska, is because that’s where the ten innocent people

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