Forgetfulness By Billy Collins
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nin Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is sliping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever t is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dar mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the windo seems to have drifted
ouot of a love poem taht you used to know by heart.
My Comparative Response:
While the poem by Sandra Cisneros “My wicked ways” focuses on remembering clearly witha a photograph what happened with her family, “Forgetfullness” by Billy Collins is all the opposite; he focuses on forgetting. The forgetting is not about his family though, it is about forgetting information in general, even commen sense memory. Even though forgetting things may seem to be insignificant at times or even not hurtful, especially with the innocent forgetfullness that the author describes like forgetting an author, the quadratic equation, or the capital of Paraguay, it seems that Billy Collins is getting at something bigger. Perhaps it is that we are so consumed with our lives that we forget about what really matters; our values, morals and those we love. The last line “out of a love poem that you used to know by heart” hinted to me that as people we use to love someone and care for them but then later when there are a million on things to worry about we don’t remember that we care for them.
1 comment:
I also analyzed this poem because it has so many meaninings. I like the part that mentioned in your journal that we are so busy we our lives that we start to forget simple things. I also wrote that idea and added that for us as humans it's impossible to remember every single detail of our lives becuase the brain is not capable of storing so much information. I was impressed at how you compared this poem to Sandra Cisneros' My Wicked Ways. When I read the poem I didn't quite understand the message of the poem but your connection helped me get a new perspective on it.
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