Help With Poetry! For School...

[rlxhustlr]

I hate reading poerty...i dont know whats wrong but i seem to have a hard time understanding what poems mean? like this one:

please feel me in with a summary of what this means plz...

Title: Warren Pryor
Author: Alden Nowlan

When every pencil meant a sacrifice
his parents boarded him at school in town,
slaving to free him from the stony fields,
the meagre acreage that bore them down.

They blushed with pride when, at his graduation,
they watched him picking up the slender scroll,
his passport from the years of brutal toil
and lonely patience in a barren hole.

When he went in the Bank their cups ran over.
They marvelled how he wore a milk-white shirt
work days and jeans on Sundays, He was saved
from their thistle-strewn farm and its red dirt.

And he said nothing. Hard and serious
like a young bear inside his teller's cage,
his axe-hewn hands upon the paper bills
aching with empty strength and throttled rage.

[rlxhustlr]

Please could someone be kind and take there time to understand what this poem is say and explain it cause im retarted! I have to explain it in front of my class in 12 hours

[chad08]

well it kind of means like his parents pressured him in to something he wasnt he became something hes not by wearing a certain clothing and never showed emotion he held his rage in

i dont know if thats right because i just skimmed through it but ya when i read a poem and try to make sence of it you have to read it over and over like "When every pencil meant a sacrifice" he could have been doing something he wanted to do or missed a chance to do something and this could mean he was alone all these year "his passport from the years of brutal toil
and lonely patience in a barren hole.".." And he said nothing. Hard and serious
like a young bear inside his teller's cage," this could mean the dude is shy

lol i dont if this is right but ya i did kind of the same thing last month in ELA B 10

[rlxhustlr]

thanks man for the help thats kinda the same sense i was getting at...does anyone else have ideas of what this poem i saying? going to bed now cause its 11:40pm where i live but will be back to check this in the morning...so if anyone on the other side of the world could help that would be great...