Poet of the Month - Mark Strand

Mark Strand was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

His collections of poems include:

• Dark Harbor (1993),
• The Continuous Life (1990),
• Selected Poems (1980),
• The Late Hour (1978),
• The Story of our Lives (1973),
• The Sargentville Notebook (1973),
• Darker (1970),
• Reasons For Moving (1968),
• and Sleeping With One Eye Open (1964).

He has also published a book of prose, entitled The Monument (1978). His books on artists include William Bailey (1987) and Hopper (1994). His translations include two volumes of the poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade. He has also published three books for children and has been the recipient of Fellowships from the Ingram Merrill, Rocke.

He has been awarded the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets (1979), a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (1987), the Bollingen Prize (1993), and has served as Poet Laureate of the United States (1990). He is currently the Elliott Coleman Professor of Poetry in the Writing Seminars at the Johns Hopkins

Quote:
"Each moment is a place you've never been."

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda


I want you to know

one thing.

You know how this is:

if I look

at the crystal moon, at the red branch

of the slow autumn at my window,

if I touch

near the fire

the impalpable ashor the wrinkled body of the log,

everything carries me to you,

as if everything that exists,

aromas, light, metals,were little boats

that sail

toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,

if little by little you stop loving me

I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly

you forget me

do not look for me,

for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,

the wind of banners

that passes through my life,

and you decide

to leave me at the shore

of the heart where I have roots,

remember

that on that day,

at that hour,

I shall lift my arms

and my roots will set off

to seek another land.

But

if each day,

each hour,

you feel that you are destined for me

with implacable sweetness,

if each day a flower

climbs up to your lips to seek me,

ah my love, ah my own,

in me all that fire is repeated,

in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,

my love feeds on your love, beloved,

and as long as you live it will be in your arms

without leaving mine



In the above poem, every aspect of figurative speech was used, Hyperbole, Simile, Metaphor, Personification, except Symbolism



Hyperbole-From ah my love, ah my own, it can be seen that the writer wishes to exaggerate that part of the poem.

Simile-The writer used fire to describe the love process going on between the man and woman

Metaphor-The writer used metaphors thrice in the story, once saying that everything that exists were little boats sailing to his lover's isle, once describing phases of his life as winds of banners and another time when he says he would move on if his love forgets him by saying his roots will set off.

Personification-The writer described a flower climbing up his lover and his love feeding on hers.

The reason I like this poem is because this it captivates my attention and it uses a lot of metaphor, all the while describing the love between two people who break up then get together again, to sum it up it is like nothing I have ever read. Everything from the gist of the poem to the feel of the poem is a totally new experience.