The purpose of Richard Wilbur's "A Fire Truck" is to illustrate the disturbance that the fire truck creates as it "sends all else skittering to the curb". The speaker of this poem could possibly be a person walking down the street witnessing the "loud, obvious thing!" , or even the person who started the fire who's "brooding" has been interrpted by the fire truck.

This example of poetry takes something so simplistic and creates a perceptive and amazingly written experience. The poet creates description with lines such as "shift at the corner into uproarious gear" and "headlong bell maintaining sure and clear". The author effectively uses rhetorical devices such as imagery, "Redness, brass, ladders, and hats hurl past", and "squall of traction", as well as the use of alliteration, "shocked street", which provides depth that could not be attained through the use of any other word. What struck me was the perception that the author created through this experience in lines such as "your phoenix-red simplicity" and "Blurring to sheer verb". These phrases grab the reader's attention and leave them captivated by something so simple.

What makes this poem such a good piece of writing is that the poet is able to take something so simplistic as a fire truck and create an experience for the reader that is so picturesque and captivating. The reader is able to indulge in such an interesting moment and leaves them wanting to continue reading.