The+forge+analysis+2

= "All I know is a door into the dark." =

I think the opening line of "The Forge" best describes the meaning of the poem. In this first line I think the speaker (blacksmith) is saying that the only thing he knows in life is his trade. He only knows how to be a blacksmith, as that is all he has ever done. Another thing I understood just from this first line is that the speaker is not happy with his life; he does not enjoy being a blacksmith. When he say's "all I know is a door into the dark", I understand that to mean that he sees his job as a dark path ahead of him; a door he is not eager to pass through, like a tunnel with no light on the other side. All he sees ahead of him is darkness, which could mean sorrow, or that he feels he has no where to go in life.

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