Eleanor's Polished Essay #18

Eleanor Hilton
English 9
Mr. Salsich
May 6th 2009

Parting; How Do You Take It?
A Comparison of Two Poems and My Life

Parting is a very broad term. We have all experienced it one time or another, and most of us don’t like it. There are two poems, “My Life Closed Twice” and “Adios, and an experience from my life that I feel relates to the word parting.

The first poem that compares to parting is Emily Dickinson’s “My Life Closed Twice”. An interesting thing about this poem is that it stays on track with its theme. Other poems however stop halfway through and drift off elsewhere with an idea. This means that Dickinson’s poem is entirely about parting. Parting happens to all of us, yet Emily Dickinson describes it in a way that is often difficult. “Parting is all we know of heaven”, we will always be looking for a way to describe heaven, but the only thing we will ever find or know about it is that that’s where we go after we have parted this world. “And all we need of hell”, whenever someone dies and leaves us on this Earth we are in ‘hell’. It takes us a long while to get back to being mundane (FAST) again, and then things may never be the same. Even though Emily Dickinson’s writing is often confusing, “My Life Closed Twice” made a lot of sense to me.


The second poem "Adios" by Naomi Shihab Nye also has a lot to do with parting. To begin with, the word "Adios" means goodbye in Spanish, so whenever you say the word it is usually to someone or something you are parting with. Also in every stanza Ms. Nye has a words to do with parting- 'departure', 'go', 'finished', 'disappear', and even a phrase 'brings tears into your eyes'. (Loose sentence) Secondly Ms. Nye says that it is 'a good word' no matter what your 'language' is. This is saying that no matter who you are and wherever you are, you will experience parting many times. Thirdly, Ms. Nye also writes a lot of metaphors about adios and parting. One of my favourites it, "Wear [parting] on your finger / till your hands dance / touching everything easily". It reminds me a lot of the ups and dwons of parting; how in the beginning you deny you are leaving someone and then it crashes down on you like a wave, and finally after days of trouble and grief you begin to feel better. Naomi Shihab Nye's poem is full of parting and how it can bring sorrow, joy and may sometimes be benevolent (FAST). Even though the poem can be a little confusing, I enjoy reading it over and over.

Like "Adios" and "My Life Closed Twice", I have experienced parting in my life. At age eleven I was called into the kitchen where I was shown a map of the US. Letters spelling strange cities and things called states stared up and me from the blue and green paper. I was surprised, I wondered whether this was some strange geography test, I was wrong. With a sad face my parents told me this would be are new home as they pointed to a word that spelled Connecticut. We would be leaving my home and that was that. I would have to part with my friends, some of which I had known since the age of three, my school, my town, my favourite shops, and my house. This is the only time in my life so far where I have had to part so much. It wasn't over though, we moved on October 30 and lived in the Marriott Residence Inn for 84 days until we had bought our house. I had parted everything, but like the two poems my life, there was an upside near the end. I love here in the US, much more than I thought that sad day in July, although I haven't liked maps much ever since.

From one side of the world to the other, parting is everywhere. (periodic) However as sad as parting is, there is nearly always an upside or a twist in the story of our lives that makes everything better.