Jaidyn McCallop
To Die
by Cecilia Meireles
I die from all what the world contains:
from what I saw, from what I heard.
I die from what I lived.
And die with myself, just
with loving and yet
desperate memories.
I die in full agony
for not feeling within
beginning or end.
I die, and the circle
stays, round, closed.
Inside I am everything and nothing.
https://www.inspirationalstories.com/poems/to-die-cecilia-meireles-poems/
https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=stress&tbs=sur:fmc&safe=active&ssui=on#imgdii=OQnKLF3wSd_mCM:&imgrc=6MKLfsHcwv5hnM:
https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=dying%20flower&tbs=sur:fmc&safe=active&ssui=on#imgdii=V5HCyJNdaGRvYM:&imgrc=9curVtFJCN-GCM:
This photo is of a dying flower that still seems to be "alive" in the center. This connects to the poem because it represents how the speaker felt like a part of them was dying and how inside they are "everything and nothing".
Bio:
Cecilia Meireles was an orphan and raised by her grandmother. She began writing poetry at 9 years old and continued to use it throughout her life. Meireles used the tragedies that occurred in her life to continue progressing in her teaching, poetry, and journalism. She was affected by many literary movements and won awards based off of her poetry. Most of her writing was very personal.
https://allpoetry.com/Cecilia-Meireles
Analysis:
This poem describes the way the speaker's life experiences made them feel. They were so overwhelmed by life in general that she came to feel as if she was dying inside, while everything continued to live around her. The speaker in the poem is probably a very troubled person. They feel abandoned, overwhelmed, depressed, and alone. The author uses figurative language, most of which are metaphors, to describe their position. The speaker uses the metaphor, "Inside I am everything and nothing." This metaphor describes the fact that the speaker feels meaningless. They probably feel scarred from the world causing them to feel this way. This poem contains no rhyme scheme. This probably symbolizes the fact that the speaker doesn't feel "unified" as a person and that they haven't yet came to their senses. The tone of this poem is quite somber. The way death continues to be mentioned makes the poem very dark and gloomy. Words like desperation, die, nothing, and agony add to that effect. The theme of this poem is that in a world of corruption, there are more people who feel scarred, empty, and hopeless than you may think.
I agree entirely with your idea of the poem. I enjoyed the surplus of metaphors in the poem. It caused me to take a step back and re-read the poem over a couple times to get a better understanding of it. I think that the circle spoken of in the last couple go lines could symbolize your social circles because the author feels as if their circle of friends has closed them off and left them to die alone. The repetition stands out to me and seems like everything is stacked against the author and is causing them to die.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your conclusion of how the poem doesn't have rhyme within it. I think that you're totally right on the fact that the speaker doesn't really feel whole from within. The speaker seems to doubt themselves from the inside out,and they speaker doesn't seem to be in tune with the rest of the world. The speaker instead feels like they're in their own world,and no one really seems to understand the internally struggle that they face. It seems like the speaker has shut themselves up from the rest of society,and the world. I think that the speaker is probably trying to figure themselves but, they're finding it hard to do so.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed the repetition of the phrase "I die." The author might've done this to show how the speaker's "death" was constant, as if the speaker died over and over and over again as they went through life. This would definitely tie into the somber tone of the poem as you mentioned. The word choice the author used as well as the images you chose almost made the poem seem morbid. The first picture you used really embodied the feeling I was getting from the poem. It felt like the speaker was alone but frantic, and they just wanted to crawl inside themselves and disappear.
ReplyDeleteExcellent poem choice! The repetition of the phrase “I die” gives off the interpretation that the speaker is not completely dead, but is dying piece by piece. Because the poem is short and contains plenty of enjambment, it is a lot deeper; less is more. After reading your theme, i decided to go back and reread the poem in a way that would correlate with it or in a way that would help me understand it better. The theme I get from this poem is in life we go through seasons of being wilted before we can be restored.
ReplyDeleteI think the speaker is describing someone who is dead inside. They are possibly describing someone who is depressed, and feels hopeless due to all of the things that occurred throughout their life. This specific person most likely no longer feels like a person and feels mentally dead. I agree that this poem is describing the way most of society feels due to life occurrences. I feel like the theme is, The obstacles we go through in life may kill us mentally before they kill us physically.
ReplyDelete