The Heights of Macchu Picchu

The Heights of Macchu Picchu is a story of the hard times and troubles the Incas had. The speaker says "The human soul was threshed out like maize in the endless granary of defeated actions," this shows that the people were worn down and were not doing well. "Not only death, but many deaths, came to each one, each day a tiny death, dust, worm, a light flicked off at the city's edge." is a line that tells us that many people were dying but also that other hardships came to them. "Dust" is the idea that where they lived was a dirty place to be and the word "worm" represents the disease and infections that they most likely had. "A light flicked off in the mud at the city's edge" gives the feeling that another drop of hope is lost from the city. The idea of insects "a tiny death with coarse wings" can mean many things but in this case it is why so many people are dying from sickness and hungar. Insects bring disease when they bight and destroy food supplies by killing crops. The speaker goes farther with the idea of a bugs, "the man was besieged by the bread or y the knife", the bread being that the crops that have been destroyed which is why they lack food and the knife being the "bite" and the disease the bite carries.
In the poem you see a few words of importance that are set out by themselves in-between the paragraphs, happened, coarse wings, captain of the plow, and short death of everyday. These words are set out for a meaning by the speaker because they tell the main story of why the people are suffering. "Happend" is important because the speaker and his people did not just start to suffer for no reason it was because of harmful events such as the the insects. "Coarse wings" is set by itself because insects, animals with coarse wins, are the main cause of their downfall because it caused the people their lack of food and disease. The idea of "the short death of every day" gives the reader the feeling that there is no hope and that waking up every morning is like a death because the suffering that is to come. The people have nothign to look forward to besides hunger and sickness which leads to death.