Brick Wall — Summary

I'm just a brick wall Sitting here proud and strong But it comes with a price I'm always alone, no people to lean on me If I crumble there's no one to repair me So that day when I crumble I'll just sit there More broken than I am The enemy doesn't stop beating on me Pounding me, trying to get me to crumble Sometimes people come and help But usually they leave before the enemy is done The enemy slowly beats me, the brick wall, down And when they finally manage, it's chaos inside There is nowhere safe to hide They can only stand and fight Until someone comes to fix the broken wall again All it is, is just a pattern I'm built, I'm beat down, chaos, I'm fixed I want to go out, stop being a wall for a little bit But I can't, because if I do, the enemy will get inside. The enemy thinks I have no feelings, no power, no strength But they are too wrong They are as wrong as black is white Everything they think about me, the wall, is false And one day, they will regret it And it might not come from me, or it might It could come tomorrow, or even in ten years. But when it does, they will regret beating down the wall The defense of so many, yet only a few The last joy, the last hope, Able to be beaten down Needs a repairman to fix, but who is up to the challenge? Of going outside for a little while? Just to fix the brick wall. The one where people scribble their feelings, mark their place, or even pour out their feelings While on the outside, the wall is being attacked Beaten against, so why take it? To protect the ones inside, to stop the chaos from arising, to protect friends and loved ones. Then when the beating is done, the enemy goes home Waiting for the next day to attack It will never stop, for no reason Then when the wall is beaten down, more chaos arises again and again But then someone fixes the wall in the chaos, the one caring soul. Fixes the wall and gets the enemy out. They are now safe. That's why there is a brick wall.

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Told from the point of view of a brick wall, the poem is really about carrying a heavy, lonely responsibility. The wall stands "proud and strong," but it pays for that strength by being alone. An enemy keeps pounding it, helpers drift away too soon, and when it finally falls, chaos spills into the space behind it. Then someone repairs it, and the whole cycle starts again.

The speaker sounds tired, a little bitter, and still stubborn. It longs to step away "for a little bit," yet it can't, because the enemy would get in. It also insists that the enemy is wrong to think it has no feelings or strength, and hints that they will regret it someday. The wall seems to stand for anyone who takes the blows so others can feel safe, though the poem doesn't say exactly who the enemy is. The mood is weary and defiant, and it ends on a quiet note of hope: one caring person fixes the wall, and everyone is safe again.

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