Hamilton Salsich

Mr. Salsich

English 9

17 October 2008

CRYING THROUGH POETRY:

An Essay on a Poem and My Life

When I feel like crying, I sometimes read poetry. 2. Perhaps the words of the poet do the crying for me, or maybe the wisdom in the poetic lines help the tears disappear. 3. A few years ago, when my brother’s wife passed away after a long and painful illness, I cried a lot, but I also found consolation in poetry. 4. I was especially helped by reading one section of “In Memoriam” by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

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TS Tennyson uses personification to help him face his own grief over the loss of his best friend, Arthur Hallam, who was drowned at a young age. SD As if he is speaking to a thinking, feeling person, he addresses an “old yew” tree in a cemetery, a tree whose “roots are wrapt about the bones” of the dead. CM He seems to admire the serenity of the old tree, which “changest not in any gale”, but remains the same “through a thousand years of gloom.” CM The poet wishes he could escape from the depths of his sorrow and be like the tree, which remains steady despite the “branding summer suns.” SD Tennyson’s life has changed drastically with his friend’s death, but the ancient tree has a “stubborn hardihood” that the poet yearns for. CM “The seasons bring the flowers again”, but nothing seems to affect the yew tree. CM It never has “the glow, the bloom” of younger trees, but it also never seems to suffer like the poet is suffering. SD In fact, the poet is grieving so much that he is “sick”, almost suicidal. CM It’s almost as if he wants to end his troubled life and become something else – perhaps a serene old tree in a quiet cemetery. CM He wants to “fail from out [his] blood” and “grow incorporate” into the tree – become one with everlasting nature. CS Tennyson expresses in this poem the eternal longing for peace during times of grief.

TS I also longed for peace after my brother’s wife passed away, and I found a semblance of it through poetry. SD First, I wrote a few poems during the days just before and after she died. CM I sat at my desk in the early morning hours and just let the grief flow easily onto the paper. CM Perhaps I felt like Tennyson did as he composed his dozens of poems about his good friend – both of us trying to get rid of our personal sorrow. SD In addition, I went back to some of my favorite poets to assuage my grief. CM I read the late poems of Walt Whitman, where he not only says he is unafraid of death, but declares there actually is no death. CM The universe is an infinite place, Whitman says, where nothing ever dies, where all things liver forever, though in shifting shapes and existences. SD Finally, I found comfort in listening to the poetry of music. CM During the summer before her death, my musical family recorded a CD especially for Denise, and I spent much time listening to the beautiful songs, both before and after she died. CM There was as much poetry in those songs as in Tennyson’s poem, and it came from the hearts of my brothers and sisters. CS Thank to poetry I came to see that, despite Denise’s death, there is still and eternal amount of life to be lived.

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1. Crying is a healthy thing to do. 2. Grief is a natural feeling, and tears are a natural response to grief. 3. We should hate the fact that a loved one is gone, but we should not hate the fact that we are crying over the loss. 4. I cried a lot over the death of my brother’s wife, and both Alfred Lord Tennyson and I softened our grief through poetry.