Lines 1-3

Lines 1 through 3 of “Originally” establish the personas in the poem, identified by the phrases “our mother” and “our father's.” The first word, “We,” must refer to a family. These lines also establish the setting of the work and suggest a personal attachment to a place: “our own country.” The setting, or place, however, is not stationary; rather, the “red room,” most likely a reference to the vehicle in which the family is traveling, appears to rush along, falling “through the fields” that go by in a blur. The phrase “turn of the wheels” further clarifies that the speaker and her family are in a car, but the words that precede it are a bit misleading in the tone they convey: “. . . our mother singing / our father's name to the turn of the wheels” suggests a merrily traveling family, riding lightheartedly down the road. The rest of the...