The Quiet Life by
Alexander Pope at first confused me a little, mostly because of the structure
and syntax that was hard for me to comprehend by just reading it. So I googled
a reading to listen to, and I loved it.
The poem suggests that a person’s identity is found in what
he choses to invest the majority of his time in. In this case, the home of the
man spoken about in the poem. Support for this can be found in the line first
stanza “Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.” The poem also indicates that a routine that
consists of a good deal of doing the same thing for a long time helps to
solidify a persons identity. This can be
seen in the third stanza: “Blest who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and
years slide soft away” But by far my favorite topic the poem deals with is one
of the culture realm. The poem seems to say that what is right and satisfying
is to go against the norm of dying a person that people care about, but rather
dying a person who loved his own life, even if he was completely unknown.
Evidence is found in the last stanza “Thus
let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the
world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.”
The contemporary poem I chose is Identity Card. I chose this poem beacause of the passion with which
the poem exclaims “I am an Arab” and demonstrates that he is extremely passionate
about what he is writing. Contrasted to the previous poem: Identity Card deals with a cultural issue that we are all aware of,
while the first poem requires deeper thought and examination of why the poet
thinks the culture previously talked about is wrong.
The poems have an interesting similarity--both celebrate a connection with one's own land.
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