CHARGE

The tone of this poem is sorta nostalgic, maybe? In the first two stanzas the speaker is remembering his childhood.. They were respectful to God and even to the "elder" that sat with them. And then the next two stanzas the speaker implies that "in these years" no one wants to be respectful or reverent. But he wants that all back.. This is really where I feel a sense of nostalgia. He wants to believe that the oxen knelt in the manger, because it was a belief he never doubted as a child. The word "hoping" in this sense gives me a feeling that he knows he won't find the oxen kneeling. He won't find anyone being reverent anymore. Times have changed.

On a side note, I hate when generations decide that times have changed too much. You know why you feel that way? Because time HAS changed! Didn't they notice that they got old? Nothing can ever really stay the same, so just step back and let the young people make their own memories. I'm not saying that the older generations shouldn't be allowed to remember their past, but they shouldn't blame the world's change on us.