English 1 Honors Poetry Project
Ja'Quel Dickens
My Life
afte Henri Michaux
Somehow it got into my room.(a)
I found it, and it was, naturally, trapped.(b)
It was nothing more than a frightened animal.(c)
Since then I raised it up.(d)
I kept it for myself, kept it in my room,(e)
kept it for its own good.(f)
I named the animal, My Life.(g)
I found food for it and fed it with my bare hands.(h)
I let it into my bed, let it breathe in my sleep.(i)
And the animal, in my love, my constant care,(j)
grew up to be strong, and capable of many clever tricks.
One day, quite recently,
I was running my hand over the animal's side
and I came to understand
that it could very easily kill me.
I realized, further, that it would kill me.
This is why it exists, why I raised it.
Since then I have not known what to do.
I stopped feeding it,
only to find that its growth
has nothing to do with food.
I stopped cleaning it
and found that it cleans itself.
I stopped singing it to sleep
and found that it falls asleep faster without my song.
I don't know what to do.
I no longer make My Life do tricks.
I leave the animal alone
and, for now, it leaves me alone, too.
I have nothing to say, nothing to do.
Between My Life and me,
a silence is coming.
Together, we will not get through this.
Tone
"My Life" has a depressing tone. Joe used words such as when he says Between My life and me , a silence is coming" meaning death. Then he say together we will not get through this, these word are depressing because he is saying he in going to die.
Theme
The theme of "My Life is that we all must die, Joe talks about death as if it is murder.
Alone
From childhood's hour I have not been(a)
As others were; I have not seen(a)
As others saw; I could not bring(b)
My passions from a common spring.(b)
From the same source I have not taken(c)
My sorrow; I could not awaken(c)
My heart to joy at the same tone(d)
And all I loved, I loved alone.(d)
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn(e)
Of a most stormy life- was drawn(e)
From every depth of good and ill(f)
The mystery which binds me still:(f)
From the torrent, or the fountain,(g)
From the red cliff of the mountain,(g)
From the sun that round me rolled(h)
In its autumn tint of gold,(h)
From the lightning in the sky(i)
As it passed me flying by,(i)
From the thunder and the storm,(j)
And the cloud that took the form(j)
(When the rest of Heaven was blue(k)
Of a demon in my view.(k)
Tone
"Alone" has a sad and depressing theme because the author is talking about how sad his childhood was and how he was alone. We know this because the autor says "And all i loved, I loved alone.
Theme
The theme of "Alone" is that different is better I know this because Edgar says " From childhood's hour I have not been as others were; I have not seen as others saw; I could not bring my passions from a common spring". He feels different from other and he also sees and thinks different from them which he believes is what made his so successful .