Counting the Children (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Dana Gioia
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Work: Narrative
- Genres: Poetry, Narrative poetry
The Poem
Dana Gioia’s “Counting the Children” is a long narrative poem, comprising fifty-six stanzas (fifty-five of them unrhymed tercets) across four sections. The poem’s first section details the investigation of a Mr. Choi, a court-appointed auditor (and the persona of this poem), who is led into the house of a deceased woman by a neighbor. “When someone wealthy dies without a will,” Mr. Choi is “sent out by the State/ To take an inventory.” The neighbor recounts to the auditor the dead woman’s eccentricities: “She used to wander around town at night/ And...
[The entire page is 1547 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
See Also
