This week we have moved into the vast realm of poetry. While we have read a great number of poems, there are a few that I would like to dive further into. Unfortunately, you will have to bear with me as I do not always get the right interpretation of a poem.
The first poem is “35/10” by Sharon Olds. For me, this poem is about the passing of the torch from one generation to the next. The mother, who is 35, is brushing her ten year olds’ hair while commenting on her aging, but also the blossoming beauty for her maturing daughter. This is the cycle of mankind. We all have to grow old, but it is also our responsibility to ensure that our posterity can prosper in the future. For me, this poem is all about making sure that we leave the world a little better than we found. This is the central purpose of my life so this poem really hit home for me.
Secondly, I also enjoyed “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. “Dreams” is one of my favorite poems (it is right up there with “Ulysses” by Tennyson). For me this poem reiterates the necessity to follow your dreams no matter what happens in life. Hughes asks the reader what happens to “dreams deferred”. He then goes on to provide five negative metaphors that are not positive to human life. Hughes ends with my favorite three lines of the poem, “Maybe it just sags/like a heavy load. / Or does it explode?” To me this is the true essence of what happens to dreams deferred. The weight of the dream continues to sag and eat at you. And eventually, you quite simply explode. If you do not go after your true dreams in life, then you can never be truly happy. Hughes hit the human psyche as it pertains to “Dreams” and more importantly, “Dreams Deferred”.
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