# Anne Spencer's Table explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Langston Hughes.

## What happens

A brief meditation on the poet Anne Spencer's writing table, suggesting the unwritten thoughts and unwritten poems that remain, symbolized by an unsharpened pencil.

## Themes in this chapter

### Dreams and Despair

The unsharpened pencil and unwritten things evoke unrealized potential and the melancholy of what remains unexpressed.

## Character check-ins

### Anne Spencer

The poet whose table and unsharpened pencil suggest unwritten knowledge.

## Key lines

> On Anne Spencer’s table / There lies an unsharpened pencil⁠— / As though she has left unwritten / Many things she knows to write.

Anne Spencer's desk holds a pencil that hasn't been sharpened, as if she has deliberately left many of her thoughts and poems unwritten.

_The image of the unsharpened pencil symbolizes the gap between knowledge and expression._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_15_se/chapters/anne-spencer-s-table
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_15_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_15_se/chapters