DDCPoetry

 Poem found here:   "Failing and Flying" by Jack Gilbert A story before the "analysis."  I read this poem and I thought it'd be a good idea to share with someone who was going through a rough divorce.  At first the person I shared the poem with was grateful, but then he told me he read it again and ripped up the poem.  I apologized not knowing how deeply the poem affected him. That event happened seven years ago.   Now on to the "analysis."  The comparative metaphor in the beginning tries to reconfigure a familiar trope, "Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew."  I think most people would remember the myth of him falling when getting too close to the sun; and, the speaker doesn't shy away from that failure in the next couple of lines:  It's the same when love comes to an end, or the marriage fails and people say they knew it was a mistake, that everybody said it would never work. That she was old enough to know better.  The com...

Original poem reprinted online here: "South" by Jack Gilbert Originally read: May 4, 2013 More information about the Poet: Jack Gilbert A third person kind of fable.  Even the beginning reads lulls the reader into a sense of anticipation for change, "In the small towns along the river / nothing happens day after long day."  Past me wrote "domestic boredom."  Now that I think about it, isn't domestic boredom the start of the imaginary or rather a catalyst for some fantastical change.  Well boredom does that to peopole. Anyway, the boredom is punctuated by these two lines, "Lives with only emergencies, births, / and fishing for excitement."  Past me noted, "domestic fun."  But What I read now is more a of a sarcastic point of view from the speaker.  However, maybe it's me that reading too much into it because the straight description of the poem is quite monotone and any hiccup of emotion (the judgement call of "excitement...