I go back to May 1937 by Sharon Old is a interesting poem because you sense a tragedy to occur almost in the poem. Throughout the whole poem all she can say is no and stop
I want to go up to them and say Stop,
don't do it--she's the wrong woman,
he's the wrong man, you are going to do things
you cannot imagine you would ever do,
you are going to do bad things to children,
you are going to suffer in ways you never heard of,
you are going to want to die
Old is obviously stating that something bad is bound to happen to them. 1930s where one of those tough years that many American citizens went through. Women went through more domestic violence at that time then now, children were sometimes asked to work and even citizens were paid very little. The Great Depression started in the late 30s and ended in the early 40s as well. A child like this could probably be a lone child, going through rough time, or even a child that has gone through parents divorcing. (with all do respect to any who have divorced parents) Another thing that catches my eyes in the poem is the amount of innocense that the author says about her parents, "the are dumb, they are kids" its as if she really didnt want them to be together.
Many reasons could be aybe why she didnt want her parents to be together, all that she did state was that she would rather tell them in the future when she is born rather then erase her existence.
Theory of time travel, what great things could we do, if we had the possibilities of time travel? But the issue with it, is to change one element, is to change another; so in reality changing a single thing would create a total change. So, she didn’t want to change what they did, because to change it out of fear that what she did would prevent her very own existence. But, if we really look at it, if she was able to go back, then regardless of what she did there; nothing would cause her to non-exist. Just the single fact of her time travel proves that she has changed nothing of her existence, in that sense she might actually prevent them from making mistakes to each other in an emotional sense toward one another; which in return maybe would help in future events.
ReplyDeleteBut, if it was even possible to change the past, would we really want too? Isn’t it the past which defines who we are, what we do? Isn’t our knowledge based off our experiences? Therefore even those experiences which are bad or good, we gain/learn from it.
Yes, the poem opens some interesting questions.
ReplyDeleteexploring how the social-economic context of the late 30s in America influences the imagery could be fruitful, if kept relevant to the poem and the speaker's conflict. Look closely at the imagery, esp in the first nine lines, and where the speaker arrives, in the closing imagery--last 6 lines, and the relationshps among these images; the closing image (last line) esp interesting, in terms of finding some value in suffering--and note, too, the dark humor of the spark-striking sexuality, suggesting, also, the rather charged (if not terrible) birth of the speaker. And what's interesting about figuring the parents as paper dolls, in this context?