' I Am Dying, By Marie Negus

It has become apparent that, ever since mankind has emerged out of the plains of Africa and spread all throughout the world, we have been changing the Earth, and not always for the betterment of society. One of the main aspects that this refers to is how humans have affected the environment and its processes. Modern society has always seemed to put our planet near the end of the list of priorities, which can be considered very ironic. After all, Earth is the planet that everyone throughout history has always called “home.” The poem “I Am Dying,” by Marie Negus reflects on the way that the earth may think about the human race regarding their poor treatment of the planet, giving the role of narrator to a very interesting and insightful character: the Earth herself. When one first reads the poem, they can automatically see that, if the Earth had the ability to consciously assess the condition that she is in, the Earth would most likely find that mankind is causing her to slowly, yet inevitably, become a dead planet. “My babies are dying, the ice is melting, the sun is burning my skin, my babies, my life” (Stanza 2, lines 1-5). The Earth’s foliage is dying, failing to release the oxygen that the other half of life depends on, and its surface

Throughout Marie Negus’s poem “I Am Dying,” the narrating Earth states that man is cruel, unforgiving, and murderous to her and her life. Despite the hidden clues implying that the Earth still considers humans to be her children, the poem mainly focuses on the hatred and sorrow that the Earth houses regarding the creatures that will inevitably be her downfall. This may make it seem like the Earth exudes passion about stopping man in its oblivious endeavors to destroy the planet, but back-tracking and examining the very the first stanza closely may hold information that proves