Summary of themes

The Burning of Paper instead of Children by Adrien Rich is about 2 boys that decided to burn their book at the end of a school year; this lead to one parent becoming very upset and telling the others parent. As one parent reflected on the days events she recounted issues in life pertaining to literature.
One of these themes is that we cannot dwell on the past. We can know everything that is going to happen because it has all been experienced and written out; but though we already can know what may come...we do it anyway. "There are books to describe all this and they are useless" (Rich2) It's an issue that people have, they try to learn everything of the past by reading others thoughts rather than simply experiencing it themselves.
Something else that seems very vivid in the poem is a general feeling of suffering. Rich's reference to Melancholia I does a wonderful job of providing a quick picture of this. Literature can be consuming, we can become lost in the text of others. In the picture the woman is so obsessed in her work that she doesn't notice the infant's demeanor or her dog's (I thought it was an ugly a** sheep at first) terrible health. Learning is great and all, but there are much more important things in this world such as family and their well being.