Thursday, September 30, 2010

Getting Out, Henry VIII Style

After reading Getting Out by Cleopatra Mathis, one emotion/tone/feeling I am sensing heavily in the work is remorse.  The poem highlights a couple who split, yet still potentially have feelings for each other.  The speaker (the woman, in this case) never gives a fully detailed reason as to why the two grew apart, leading one to believe even more so that this divorce is not the way it was meant to be.  However, she does acknowledge that "Days were different" [line 8], and maybe life just got in the way of love.  Towards the end of the relationship, both felt like a mental patient, "like inmates/ who beat the walls" [lines 1-2].  Obviously the two strived to make the marriage work, but to no avail; "I think of the lawyer's bewilderment/ when we cried, the last day" [lines 20-21].  I can see where girls would totally get into the poem because it's sappy and sad and stuff, but I don't know.  I'm just not buying it, I suppose.


"Taking hands/ we walked apart, until our arms stretched/ between us.  We held on tight, and let go." [lines 21-23]



I'm with Calvin on this one.


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