ARMORJust about at the triple-barrelled pistolI can't go on. I sink down as if shot, beside the ball of its butt larded with mother-of-pearl. My son leaves me on the bench, and goes on. Hand on hip, he gazes at a suit of armor, blue eyes running over the silver, looking for a slit. He shakes his head, hair greenish as the gold velvet cod-skirt hanging before him in volutes at the metal groin. Next, I see him facing a case of shields, fingering the sweater over his heart, and thenfor a long time I don't see him, as a mother will lose her son in war. I sitand think about men. Finally Gabriel comes back, sated, so fattened with gore his eyelids bulge. We exit under the huge tumescent jousting irons, their pennants a faded rose, like the mist before his cyes. He slips his hand lightly in mine, and says Not one of those suits is really safe. But when weget to the wide museum stepsrailed with gold like the descent from heaven, he can't resist,and before my eyes, down the stairs, over and over, clutching his delicate unprotected chest, Gab dies, and dies.

Sharon Olds 1. Explain why a museum is a good place for this poem. 2. What is the controlling concept of the poem? 3. Explain what Olds point is with regard to the boys reaction to the armor. 4. What is the meaning of the poem? 5. Why should it be part of this class? 6. Explain what other works we have covered that you can connect this poem to