This poem is rather intriguing to me. Why would someone write an elegy for someone who is not actually dead...? Unless that death would be metaphorical in that the person has shut them out of their life, but the speaker has not shut out his father in his life. His father seems to have the mentality that he is ready to go when he is ready to go, but the speaker is not ready to think about death. Even though he is not ready to go, the speaker is speaking about his father as if he is dead...kind of seems like a juxtaposition to me there.
"I think he wants to go,
a little bit-- an new desire
to travel building up, an itch"
Death is not presented in a bad way in this poem. Instead, it is the end of an old journey and the beginning of a new journey. The speaker is not ready to end the current journey he is on and he wants to experience more while his father is over his current journey and is ready to move on to another place. The speaker feels as if his father is so ready for this new journey that it is almost like he is dead. He is not living to live anymore but living to die. Then again...aren't we all living to die?
"I think he wants to go,
a little bit-- an new desire
to travel building up, an itch"
Death is not presented in a bad way in this poem. Instead, it is the end of an old journey and the beginning of a new journey. The speaker is not ready to end the current journey he is on and he wants to experience more while his father is over his current journey and is ready to move on to another place. The speaker feels as if his father is so ready for this new journey that it is almost like he is dead. He is not living to live anymore but living to die. Then again...aren't we all living to die?
October 8, 2010 at 3:47 PM
sort of weird to write an elegy before they've died....I wonder how the father feels about that!