POEM COMMENTARY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

POEM COMMENTARY - Essay Example When health fails, it is again the involvement of the people around one that concerns one the most: "Everyone is after me to take it easy./ They all make doctors' appointments for me, eyeing me in that quizzical way." The attitude of people around a seriously ill person begins to change, the "quizzical" looks are part of an effort to deal with the nearby prospect of mortality. When confronted by evidence of an illness, one goes into denial: "Everyone is spotting oddnesses/ in my innards, suddenly shocked/ by radio-awful diagrams.I do not agree". Neruda correctly diagnoses the human weakness of not wanting to face facts, and most importantly, not wanting to face the transient nature of existence and the cold touch of death. The same weakness of not knowing and acknowledging the truth about human existence, plagues people when things are not going so well professionally: " Everyone is picking at my poetry/ with their relentless knives and forks,/ trying, no doubt, to find a fly./ I am afraid." This confession of fear is uncharacteristic of people in general but the poet Neruda takes the first step towards confronting his fears: accepting that he is afraid.