Going Back, On a Hot Night by Robert Gray.

Subject Matter: The persona in the poem goes on a journey: train ride
“Now we are coming again towards a station; out of the dark countryside, the lights of a town” * Leaving their comfort zone to find a job, evidently shown in the above stanza. * While on the train ride, the persona observes the surroundings and the outside of the train. * It is merely obvious that the persona has been through this journey numerous of times, triggering familiarities with the surroundings accompanied by his memories and emotions. * The persona has also gone through the journey several of times in search for a labour job, but ends up going back home due to no success in finding a job. * The persona changes from third person then to first person in the poem. * This states that he was still in his comfort zone (third person) when he uses the pronoun “we” and then leaves to find a labouring job and the poem changes to first person as the person changes to “I”.
Key Themes: * Modernisation & Nature
“over a hollow long metal bridge rumbles” “street-light, pailings” “exactly the sound of a distant hammer” * Isolation & Loneliness
“Now we are coming towards a station…… And I see the small moon”
Setting:
* Physically the persona in the poem is set in the train but mentally, their mind and thoughts are somewhere else around the surroundings outside of the train. * The setting changes back to a house: in a room.
The persona has gone on a journey to find a job numerous of times but has failed again. In relation to journey, this shows that the outcomes are not always through the sense of reality used in Gray’s poem
Purpose:
* Gray makes a contrast to modernization and nature in his poem. Gray juxtaposes light and dark through "Out of the dark country side, the lights of a town" He has moved from a place filled with nature to a place where technology has advanced and modernization has occurred. * "Over a hollow long metal bridge rumbles the long train" Gives an effect of the harsh damage it