Week 3 - I Go Back to May 1937

Immediately when I started reading this poem I said to myself, "I know this... Is this...? Wait let me see, is there a part about sword-tips? Yep, this is the poem recited in Into The Wild!" So, anyway, I know this poem, but never took the time to find out who wrote it. The context that the movie put it in allowed me to instantly understand the theme of childhood victimization brought on by the decisions and actions of parents. It's interesting how seamlessly the inclusion of this poem in the film was made. I don't think I even stopped to ask whether it was written by someone other than Chris McCandless. The specific images of bricks, gates, books all speak to this universal collegiate image. However, the poet makes them her own with these images of plates of blood and sword-tips. Originally I viewed the tone of this poem as incredibly negative and angry. The lines:

you are going to do things

you cannot imagine you would ever do,

you are going to do bad things to children,

you are going to suffer in ways you have not heard of,

you are going to want to die.

all seem like angry projections the child is placing on the parents brought about by her negative experiences as a child. However, when I heard Olds recite the poem herself, a more sorrowful tone took shape for me. The repetition of "I want" was really brought to the forefront and I began to view this poem as a melancholy attempt to rectify the past, to try to halt the heartbreak before it begins. Then it is brought around to her own mortality. But with the final line this poem reveals to me the acceptance of what's done is done and although it was awful, it's because of the decisions and actions of her parents and the negative aspects of her childhood that allowed her to write this poem.