Marcus Wicker: Poem Analysis

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Recommended: Solitude in one hundred years of solitude

During this week’s assignment we read three poems; each very different from the other. The first poem was titled “Ode to Browsing the Web”, by Marcus Wicker. When reading this poem I began to picture a person, at their computer, in isolation oblivious to reality. The two lines in this poem that coincided with what I “saw”, in my opinion, were about loneliness and time. The first line said that, “my loneliness exists after every afterthought”. Reading on the poem said, “all of this happening in a time no older than your last heartbeat” (Poetry Foundation, 2017). Wicker’s poem, for me, is about a person experiencing everything, but being a part of nothing; living in a false sense of reality. The second poem was titled “Traveling through the Dark”, by William Stafford. As I read this poem, I saw a man helpless to the situation he was facing. Essentially, the man is between a rock and a hard place, or a lose-lose situation. The two lines that I believe strengthens my view are, “beside the mountain road I hesitated”. He also says, “I thought for us all…” (Poetry Foundation, 2017). It seems as though, regardless of this considerations, he was going to have to …show more content…

Personally, this is my favorite poem out of the three that I read, and re-read. When reading this poem, the image that comes to me is of someone breaking free from their stereotypical chains formed by societal standards. The encouraging message reminds me that every living thing on earth has its own freedom and meaning. The two lines that give me this impression are, “you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves”. Oliver also says, “whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination…” (Poem Hunter, 2006 ). I feel that the author encourages people to understand that everyone faces trials, even the things found in nature; however, those trials in no way should define the meaning of our

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