David Lehman: Rejection Slip 1990

In the poem a man was interested in a girl but a man with experience was able to grab her attention. Lead the girl to be interested in the other man. “Went to a toad of my acquaintance, a loathsome jerk” line 6 He expressed his feeling towards the man as hateful. There’s always a reason why things happen. He did not question his fate but praised his fate. In the poem you can feel the pain when a person leaves your life that you love or care about. You feel hurt when you have put your time and effort towards a person and someone else takes them from you. “Pain that sharpens the sense!” line 15 this lines allows you to see the image with the word “sharpens”. A sharp item can hurt you which are the pain the author is trying to express in his poem. “The audience watched in grim anticipation” line 17 in this line he has spectators watching the whole situation unfold where he is in pain and he lost an opportunity with a girl who he badly wanted.