"In Response to a Rumor That the Oldest Whorehouse in Wheeling, West Virginia Has Been Condemned"

In this poem James Wright keeps his diction pretty low, using fairly simplistic language throughout. Instead of using a higher diction, Wright uses simple words and internal rhyme to create a world that seems vaguely mystical and elusive. In the first stanza, Wright starts the poem "I will grieve alone,/ As I strolled alone, years ago, down along", in a mixture of internal, slant, repetition, and assonance that give these two lines a whimsical feeling, leaving the reader feeling swept off their feet to somewhere different that doesn't quite seem of this world. The word "river" is used three times in the second stanza, and this is not an accident; by putting "river" in the first line and the last two lines of the stanza, it frames the stanza and anchors the reader to the river. By emphasizing the river so heavily, it seems as though it could possibly be a descriptor for the place itself: a fast-paced flow that stays in one place constantly. This is hinted at when Wright refers to the women "pour[ing] down the long streets" as if this town were the structure of the river and these women were the water. Going back to the simplicity of the language, everything in this poem seems to be calmly stated even when the subjects don't appear to be calm. Wright says that the river has "has only two shores:/ the one in hell, the other/ In Bridgeport, Ohio." Wright does not try and place the reader in the hell that was just mentioned, it is just factually stated and the reader must take it as such, that this place is somehow connected to hell. While Wright does not say that this place is hell, nor do I think it is implied that it is such, by juxtaposing it with hell, the reader is left with a questioning about why this detail was included and what it's supposed to say about this place.