POET'S REFUGE: There Is An Issue (3/4/08)
A Monthly Column with Charles Young '08
There is an Issue by Jesse Kirkland '08
We all yearn for a progressive change. As the New Year approached us during Christmas Break, many people re-evaluated the ending year, while simultaneously making resolutions for the next. We realized there were things we didn't do that we should have, and things we did do that we could have done better. Oftentimes, to aptly assess ourselves, we look at those around us, taking characteristics we admire in them and adding these traits to our list of what could make us a better person.
In "There Is An Issue," Jesse Kirkland '08 analyzes the complications of making personal changes. He notes how, in trying to change, we emulate our model, and how that emulation will forever continue. The opening stanza states "the issue": that his imitation of a model is beginning to coincide with himself, meshing what used to be with what will be. He imitates this model, which his ultimate goal is to become, but, in the third stanza, it is revealed that he feels he will never achieve his ideal. Because of his doubts, he hides his feign from the model and destroys it, thus destroying himself. But in a last effort to obtain his idea of perfection, he begins anew, stating, "...and with that brush dipped in rapid beat, I paint a copy that will never be seen." Finally, he ends the poem as it began, once again stating, "There is an issue," thus starting the cycle of imitation again.
There Is An Issue
...There is an issue
Imitation may indeed be the sincerest form of flattery
but the issue to which I'm referring is a line
A line that keeps on blurring the imitation with the me
Imitate, emulate
I fear that's what this is
But I long to originate what I imitate
And have what I imitate not change me, but be me
To long to love the song, like I see the song loved
To long to live the life, like I see the life lived
So I imitate, and I try to be what I long to be
I can feel it in me, an enjoyment for that and this
But the doubt is there, and taints my bliss.
So shamed am I of this, I hide my imitation from the model which I admire
Senseless it seems since one would think I imitate for attention.
One would think...one would be wrong
And I am included in this ever present one
Presently I imitate for reasons unknown to me.
I crush on the one, and with that brush dipped in rapid beat,
I paint a copy that will never be seen
...There is an issue
Imitation may indeed be the sincerest form of flattery, but the price we pay to do so is too much too bare. This poem reminds us not to "follow the fold," as Molly Gillis '08 so beautifully sang in this year's musical production of Guys and Dolls, because in doing so, we lose our own unique identity.
So, stay yourselves until next time in the Poet's Refuge.
By Bishop McNamara HS |
March 4, 2008; 11:05 PM ET
Poet's Refuge
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