Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump

Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump

by David Bottoms
Loaded on beer and whiskey, we ride
to the dump in carloads
to turn our headlights across the wasted field,
freeze the startled eyes of rats against mounds of rubbish.
Shot in the head, they jump only once, lie still
like dead beer cans.
Shot in the gut or rump, they writhe and try to burrow
into garbage, hide in old truck tires,
rusty oil drums, cardboard boxes scattered across the mounds,
or else drag themselves on forelegs across our beams of light
toward the darkness at the edge of the dump.
It's the light they believe kills.
We drink and load again, let them crawl
for all they're worth into the darkness we're headed for.

TPCASTT Analysis

T-Title: The title "Shooting Rats at the Bibb Country Dump" predicts that the author enjoys shooting rats at the Bibb Country Dump. Also, it predicts that people in this poem are misothery. Misothery is a Greek word which means "animal hater."

P-Paraphrase: This poem tells us that people were drunk and they drove to the dump in carloads to shoot the rats for joy. The author mostly talks about killing rats and rats believe that it is the light that kills them.

C-Connotation:
This poem involves a lot of imagery because the author visually well described the dark atmosphere of deep night and driving with beer and whiskey. Dump in carloads is a very powerful image in this poem because the author tells us some waste like "rusty oil drums, cardboard boxes scattered across the mounds and old truck tires" which are very powerful images in visual and smell of dumps. And rat's startled eyes are also a powerful image in the middle of dark night and he tries to emphasize the dark atmosphere by describing the dark dump in carload.

Rhythm of this poem is very dark. People were drunk, driving to the dump in carloads in the deep night, and enjoying killing rats which are very dark and evil by shooting.

The metaphor of this poem is the indirect comparison of rat and human. In this poem, humans lose their nobility and become like filthy rats by shooting and drinking alcohols in the deep night.

Simile of this poem is "lie still like dead beer cans." Because he compared rats and beer cans using like or as. This simile shows that the people are drunk and lost the control of being noble.

Denotation of this poem is light because in this poem, light reveals the rat in the darkness. Connotation of this poem is light too because it is a symbolic meaning of disguised hypocrisy of "heaven and goodness." Because the light seems like heaven but in this poem the light is death and great fear for rats.

Symbols in this poem are light, darkness, and rats and humans and dump of carloads. Light is the symbolic meaning of disguised hypocrisy of "heaven and goodness." Light is death and great fear for rats, not pure and clean as human's perspective. The light shows that there aren't any species with nobility, but full of filth. The symbolic meaning of darkness is the peace or shelter because rats need to survive by hiding into darkness which contradicts to the light. It is very strange because the light in this poem is death and darkness represents the refugee of rats. The symbolic meanings of humans are war and violence because humans are the group who kill the rats violently. Rats represent the innocent civilian who gets suffered by the war. And dump of carloads represent destruction of war. Also there is irony in this poem because rats believe that it is the light that kills them but it is the bullet that kills them.

A-Attitude: Attitude of this poem is very dark and evil because the story goes on with dark atmosphere and people shoot at rats which is very diabolical. I think this poem deals with the war too, because the author lived in a period of World War II, Korean War, and Vietnamese War. The author is criticizing the human nature of "destroy."

S-Shift: The shift of this poem is "It's the light they believe kills." Because it makes us hesitate reading and think what this sentence really mean. And this shift is important because it shows how the rats (innocent civilians) are incapable in front of war.

T-title: At the first time when I read this poem, I thought this poem was about Misothery, but this poem had different significant meaning that is totally different with my prediction. This poem was about criticism of human nature of "destroy." Human creates and then we tend to naturally destroy or get rid of our creation.

T-Theme: The theme is that by the nature of human, we will continuously attack and kill each other like drunken people in this poem. And innocent civilians like rats will die and civilization will become like dumps in carload.