Have you ever been going through the roughest time of your life and you wonder when it’ll lighten up? And in the midst of whatever may be going wrong, something good happens. You see a squirrel holding one to many nuts in its mouth, an old couple on a date, something good that lightens your day just a little. The peaceful bliss in the time of dark war was the emotion I received from Amy Lowell’s September. The poem was written in 1918, which is nearing the end of World War I.
Lowell starts her poem light and airy, almost like one could imagine themselves outside on a nice day. The opening paragraph has the essence of a warm fall, with, “This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight” and “The sidewalks shone...And the houses ran along them laughing…” This seems like a comparison to children running around the neighborhood playing.
And then she says, “Two little boys, lying flat on their faces/Were carefully gathering red berries/To put in a pasteboard box.” so there are actually children, out and about, enjoying the weather.
After all the blissful descriptions, her second stanza begins with, “Some day there will be no war.” This line was surprising to me at first because the first stanza had been so relaxing and beautiful that I never would have thought a war was going on. After her statement about war one day being over, she says, “Then I shall take out this afternoon/And turn it in my fingers...And note the crisp variety of its flights of leaves.” She then goes on, in summary, to say that she will pack up this day and save it for a better day, perhaps a day without war, and reminisce on the happiness she tried to feel.
She ends the poem by saying, “For I have time for nothing/But the endeavour to balance myself/Upon a broken world.” This summary clarifies the fact that she did feel joy in that moment, but she couldn't enjoy it knowing what was going on in the world elsewhere. This poem is relatable to everyone, whether we be going through war or not, because we can all think of a time where we felt sad or depressed and yet something made us feel a little less blue. Even for a moment.
I agree--Lowell has written a poem that definitely describes the particular circumstances of life during WWI, but that also relates to a greater sense of loss and melancholy.
ReplyDeleteYou do make a good point about how she is reflecting on the little things that were once prominent in her life. It's interesting to me to think about people whose lives were changed by this war and how they craved to enjoy the little things like seeing children playing and gathering berries. Today we take so much for granted. Every year the leaves change colors in September and the world is full of warm colors. I look forward to seeing the colors change but most years they change so fast and I'm too caught up in life to notice. People during the war didn't know if there would be another time to see the changing seasons or to see their kids run around. They had to hold onto the memories and hope that the war wouldn't destroy the things they once held dear.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I thought this poem was adaptable to different circumstances so I'm glad I wasn't too off base on this idea.
ReplyDeleteYou articulate what is going on beneath the surface of this poem well. I like this poem to and can relate too. It is clear that she cannot enjoy what most of us take for granted on a daily basis, because there is so much anxiety within at that time.
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