The poem "Tenement Room: Chicago" is simply about the same thing as its title says, a tenement room in Chicago. To show the mood of the room the poet uses imagery. When the poet uses imagery, he uses words to create mental images using the five senses of seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, and touching. The poet here tries to show how the room and everything in it is broken, beaten, and old with visual imagery. …showed first 75 words of 586 total…

…showed last 75 words of 586 total…that it is old and is worn-out. This is also apparent in verse 20 to 22; the dusk lays a soothing hand on its whimpering poverty. Dusk does not have hands, and poverty does not whimper. It is just implying that the day is turning into night making the city full of poverty, which needs help (thus the whimpering). Personification helps the reader relates to certain things by giving those things qualities just like the reader has.