The tone of the poem is a recycled process from initial innocence to final corruption and then death, "we have degraded prisoners destined for starvation until we eat dirt" (ll.52 -54). Yet what are we hungry for? In stanza 19, the tone shifts in the language – “imagination tends after deer,” “fields of goldenrod,” “stifling September heat” – and paints a mural of warmth and golden splendor that mimics the American Dream imaginary. This use of imagery within golden fields parallels the natural description of the “smothered cherry” and the “viburnum,” all seemingly useless nature clichés but with a hidden irony beneath their intention. With the use of the words 'strains' and 'suffocating', with their emphasis on the 'st' sound, there is a mockery of discomfort which paves the way for the next line, "Somehow it seems to destroy us." This portrait mocks a perfect existence, while its reality suffocates us. A hunger to reach these 'goldenrod fields', when all there is filth and in death lies the disappointing truth that all succumb to the same