Poetry Response #2

"To Myself"

Even when I forget you
I go on looking for you
I believe I would know you
I keep remembering you
sometimes long ago but then
other times I am sure you
were here a moment before
and the air is still alive
around where you were and I
think then I can recognize
you who are always the same
who pretend to be time but
you are not time and who speak
in the words but you are not
what they say you who are not
lost when I do not find you

—W.S. Merwin


“To Myself” by W.S. Merwin is about the loss of someone the author loved and remembering things about that time. Even when he is not thinking of who is lost, he continues to pursue and look for her wherever he goes. The poem itself is a narrative that uses repetition and is one continual thought to explain his feelings.

The way in which this poem is written causes the reader to have to reread it over and over again. W.S. Merwin is remembering a loved one and we ‘walk’ through his thought process by having no punctuations. I think it relates to the title of the poem, “To Myself”, in that, usually when one writes a note to themselves it rambles on and is unorganized such as with the repetition of the two words “I” and “you”. Some parts of the poem are hard to understand but I don’t necessarily think comprehension was the goal of the piece; meaning he wrote it for himself and not anyone else.

I found the ending of the poem to be particularly difficult to understand. Lines 10 through 16 are about what I think is a women and her always be the same but she is not who they she says. It is unclear who they is and why the tone changed from remembrance to more of a challenging tone. The author doesn’t think others understood who the loved one was and only he really identified with her.

It is actually a sad poem because you can almost feel the presence or try to imagine who the person he is talking about is. For example, when he says, “…The air is still alive around where you were and I think I can recognize you…” shows that he has not moved on from the loss of this person and he still thinks of her even when he does not intend on doing so. “To Myself” by W.S Merwin shows the emotion behind the loss the author and how she was remembered.

“I Stand Here Ironing”

“I Stand Here Ironing” is a monologue about a mother’s regrets about her daughter, Emily, and why she is now having problems in school.

Level 1 – Where was Emily sent when she was younger?
Level 2 – Do your parents have an actual handle of what your life is like?
Level 3 – Do you think a man could relate to this story as well as women could? Explain.

I found this short story to be my favorite reading so far because of the way it was presented. It begins in present tense and then moves into the past, when Emily was born and the mother was only 19. What’s interesting about that is that Emily is now 19 and I thought that tied the story in nicely. Also, when I was reading this I sort of envisioned a scene in a movie. I saw the conversation the mother was having and then flash backs of certain scenes, like the daycare or when Emily is waiting for her mom to return, with the author speaking in-between. In the short story the line between the author and the narrator is blurred in a way that it all ties together and flows nicely.

Going to the story itself, I actually felt really sad for the mother. She is talking to the school administrator, or a counselor of some sort, of how she has failed as a mother and that is why her child is having so many problems in school. Emily was sent to boarding school when she was very young, and so a strong relationship between them was never formed. Emily’s mother never was responsible for Emily’s upbringing, it was always the babysitter, or the daycare center, or the boarding school. Emily had to learn to take care of herself and I think her mother regrets that.

"The Lesson"

Sylvia learns through her trip to F.A.O. Schwartz that her family is far worse than she thought they were.

Level 1 – Who is Miss Moore?
Level 2 – Who is Sylvia’s best friend and how is she different than Sylvia?
Level 3 – Why are the children happier living in denial?

I actually enjoyed reading the “The Lesson” because it felt more like a story and was less formal. I felt the author tried to make Sylvia seem like a round character and failed at doing so. She was pretty much a plot device for being the poor girl that doesn’t want to acknowledge her place in the world. She was definitely more of a flat character because of how stereotypical she was.

I found it interesting that as the reader of the story, I was able to figure out the lesson before Sylvia – or at least understand the story better than her. Sylvia continued to try to escape reality and daydreams of places she would rather be. For example, when Miss Moore takes her into a cab and asks her to calculate the tip, Sylvia sticks her head of the window and goofs around. She can’t figure out the tip at the end because she is not focusing on reality. She especially doesn’t want Miss Moore to teach her a moralizing lesson. It is like Sylvia has a strong destination of what she thinks of pertains to her; she knows what is reality and what is in her head.

So in the end, the children and Sylvia don’t like Miss Moore because she tries to teach them lessons they don’t want to know. They are happier in the denial of not having money. She tries to show them the bigger world, which is too dramatic for them to think about. When they go to F.A.O. Schwartz, they are so overwhelmed by all the toys and how expensive they are. It becomes apparent that the class struggles with class-consciousness, the theme of the story. These impoverished people need to realize how class systems are not right and then should do something about it.