Reflective Essay

 

From the past to the present, I have seen many different poems. Although I have written poetry in high school even college, it is also a very simple or short poem. This time in the face of short stories, short poems, and long poems, I chose to write a long poem to challenge myself. In any case, choosing a theme is the first thing that we need to consider. On a variety of topics and theme, I chose the theme of growth and alone because I believe that many people are in this state during college. At the same time, I also remember Walt Whitman’s poem “I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing” that I read in the last semester. The poet describes his thoughts about his friends, companions, and male lovers. In the whole poem, Whitman uses the Oak that he meets in Louisiana to reflect his own similar qualities which are the oak and herself both growing without any companion. It can be said that the word “alone” has a great impact on me, so I chose alone and grow as my theme.

When you grow up, you have more troubles. When you grow up, you need to think more. When you grow up, you need to do it yourself. The poem begins with a feeling of our past childhood. It has been a long time since childhood and we have grown and become more mature. “Growing up is like a flying kite” (5). I have described our growth as a kite which uses the simile. And our growth is indeed a kite, flying on the blue sky towards our dream. At the end of the first stanza, I repeated four “just” to express the growing loneliness during grown. “Yesterday was a bright light” (12). I used a metaphor to describe that yesterday was a light. We never worry that light will weaken, but we are afraid of the extinction of the light. Just like we don’t worry about leaving with friends but we are afraid of the complete disappearance of our friends. The third and fourth stanza in the poem talking about the friends that we used to know are gradually leaving us. I remember that many years ago when I was in middle or high school, my friends and I sat together in front of the TV to watch the TV show. At that time, I was surrounded by a group of friends. After many years of the class reunion, I was still familiar with the face, but the frequency and decibel of speak were significantly smaller. “Stars fall all over the world, the gathering is in the indefinite future”(32). This is a metaphor that describes friends as stars. The stars are scattered all over the world, but the once together is no longer.

Why is the younger the more people who accompany themselves? Why do people grow older and more lonely? Maybe grow up, the more things you think, the more people you have to guard against, the more you will pretend to be yourself, and many things are not willing to reveal them. Lock yourself in the spiritual world you created, and others can’t get in and out. The so-call more grown will more lonely, is the young shell that we faded during growth and maturity. At a time when you are feeling lonely, it is the best time for your own building to be strong. This is also what the poem says. Maybe no one will accompany you at “tomorrow”. Maybe you are bored. Maybe you are not used to it. Maybe you are lonely, but the past is past, we can’t look back. So don’t waste your loneliness, go ahead and do something meaningful for the future.

 

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