Life and Death

This week’s poems are quite unusual. Neither of them have standard poetic structure, pattern, or rhyme. They are difficult to read and interpret at first, but after careful analysis there appears to be a myriad of possible interpretations.
E. E. Cummings’ famous “l(a” is probably the strangest looking poem I’ve ever seen, to be perfectly honest. I had no idea what I was looking at; there is no capitalization or punctuation—with the exception of the parentheses—therefore it could not be read aloud. Finally I realized it simply said “a leaf falls” inside the word “loneliness.” The textbook claims this is a lyric poem, which usually conveys the personal emotions or thoughts of a single speaker and is often about love or death. The poem could mean the speaker felt strong feelings of sadness after watching a single leaf fall from a tree. However, the poem is actually in the shape of the digit “1” and “one” is the only word that appears correctly, leading me to believe the poem is not a sad reflection but more a declaration of independence. Perhaps Cummings was describing his independent nature, originality, and feelings against conformity. The shape of the poem also resembles the single leaf, “l(a,” floating back and forth in the air and eventually landing on the solid ground, the “iness.” This last line could represent his unyielding individuality and self-awareness.
William Carlos Williams’ “This is Just to Say” is not difficult to decipher because of the form but because of the content. The three short stanzas with very few syllables in each line and no rhyme pattern contain a very straightforward message: this speaker is apologizing for consuming his someone’s food. It even resembles a note someone would leave on the refrigerator. After researching the poem a bit further, I discovered that Williams was actually a doctor. One day he came home from work, ate his wife’s plums and left this poem as a note for her to read. I believe the poem is more complex than that, though. The third stanza conveys a strong sense of temptation, “they were delicious so sweet and so cold,” which could symbolize sexual desire, or the physical dominating the spiritual side of human nature. Also, the note appears to be an apology, but does he really sound sincere about it? He comes off as rather smug and pleased with himself for eating the plums he knew his wife planned to eat, not quite asking for forgiveness. On many of the discussion boards I found online, people believe this poem is about absolutely nothing. But William Carlos Williams was showing his belief that people can use “their own language and experiences” to create whatever kind of poetry they want. This poem is absolutely not about nothing, it’s about anything.
Much like the Emily Dickinson poems from the last set of readings, Louise Erdrich’s short story, “Love Medicine,” is about death. Dickinson stresses the point that death is an inevitable aspect of life and cannot be avoided or altered. In “Love Medicine,” Lipsha Morrissey tries to tamper with the natural way of things. Although his “touch” is believed to be effective in healing his Chippewa people, including his grandmother, he should never have agreed to her request to put some sort of love spell on his grandfather. He knew it was wrong to attempt the “love medicine,” and it ultimately killed his grandfather. After Grandpa Kashpaw dies, the theme of forgiveness also comes into the picture. Most importantly, Lipsha needs to forgive himself and not feel responsible—it was meant to happen. He also wishes to make amends with any relatives he has had conflicts with over the years, probably because his grandfather’s death makes him realize that time is too precious to waste on holding grudges and feeling regret. Like Dickinson says in “Because I could not stop for Death,” death will come whether you are ready or not. Another important theme in the story is love, that it does not “curl up and die” but that it is eternal and strong, much like Grandma Kashpaw’s feelings for her husband.
Our readings this week have dealt with some very deep issues. They have motivated us to think about things we sometimes avoid and consider viewpoints we hadn’t before, particularly Emily Dickinson’s poems and the Louise Erdrich story. It may sound incredibly cliché, but the main message I got from each writer is to take full advantage of the time you have. “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today. Dance as if no one is watching and love as if you’ll never get hurt.”