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Poet: W.S. Merwin
Poem: Yesterday
Comment 4 of 4, added on November 28th, 2007 at 2:11 AM.
(I always feel inadequate to comment on great poems like this! Ah, now I'm experiencing de ja vu.)
The only aspect of this poem I don't understand, and therefore will write about that: is the title. I want to write about why it's called 'Yesterday'.
The speaker of the poem tries in a brief, courageous moment to interrupt his friend 'I say the last time I saw my father' in stanza 4. But soon he is back to just saying 'oh I say' in stanza 6.
I interpret that the speaker, although not capable of speaking of his father, has lost his father. He says 'feeling again the cold/of my fathers hand the last time' stanza 6.
The death of his father and I suppose the sadness and guilt he experiences as he listens to the story by his friend who 'is older than I am'. Here, the speaker is even more distant because he just looks 'out the window'.
So all this time, the speaker is thinking of Yesterday, the day he lost his father. I suppose that's why his friend is talking to him about his father and maybe wants to learn something about relationships from the speaker, like how to talk to his father, but the speaker has nothing to say, or if he does, he's too sad to say it. This lack of communication from the speaker to the friend symbolizes or is a metaphor for the lack of communication between the speaker or the friend and their fathers.
Danny Hocken from United States
Comment 3 of 4, added on February 23rd, 2007 at 7:50 AM.
you know this poem is related to my life now i usually see my father
alexandria from Philippines
Comment 2 of 4, added on February 13th, 2007 at 12:53 PM.
is there anyone who has lost a parent who wouldn't understand this poem's meaning? it goes beyond the parent/child relationship and probably applies to relationships in general especially the familial...if we give 99% to a relationship, we feel guilty about the 1% we saved for ourselves...even if we were given another chance our actions would not be different...it speaks of a universal emotion...guilt is inherent in man's nature...simply said, it's "inherited"...i've always doubted those who never "owned" this emotion...
ilene novick from United States
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Comments
(I always feel inadequate to comment on great poems like this! Ah, now I'm experiencing de ja vu.)
The only aspect of this poem I don't understand, and therefore will write about that: is the title. I want to write about why it's called 'Yesterday'.
The speaker of the poem tries in a brief, courageous moment to interrupt his friend 'I say the last time I saw my father' in stanza 4. But soon he is back to just saying 'oh I say' in stanza 6.
I interpret that the speaker, although not capable of speaking of his father, has lost his father. He says 'feeling again the cold/of my fathers hand the last time' stanza 6.
The death of his father and I suppose the sadness and guilt he experiences as he listens to the story by his friend who 'is older than I am'. Here, the speaker is even more distant because he just looks 'out the window'.
So all this time, the speaker is thinking of Yesterday, the day he lost his father. I suppose that's why his friend is talking to him about his father and maybe wants to learn something about relationships from the speaker, like how to talk to his father, but the speaker has nothing to say, or if he does, he's too sad to say it. This lack of communication from the speaker to the friend symbolizes or is a metaphor for the lack of communication between the speaker or the friend and their fathers.
Danny Hocken from United States