what is literally going on in this poem???????????????

Question

My Life


Somehow it got into my room.
I found it, and it was, naturally, trapped.
It was nothing more than a frightened animal.
Since than I raised it up.
I kept it for myself, kept it in my room,
kept it for its own good.
I named the animal, My Life.
I found food for it and fed it with my bare hands.
I let it into my bed, let it breathe in my sleep.
And the animal, in my love, my constant care,
grew up to be strong, and capable of many clever tricks.
One day, quite recently,
I was running my hand over the animal's side
and I came to understand
that it could very easily kill me.
I realized, further, that it would kill me.
This is why it exists, why I raised it.
Since then I have not known what to do.
I stopped feeding it,
only to find that its growth
has nothing to do with food.
I stopped cleaning it
and found that it cleans itself.
I stopped singing it to sleep
and found that it falls asleep faster without my song.
I don't know what to d

I don't know what to do.
I no longer make My Life do tricks.
I leave the animal alone
and, for now, it leaves me alone, too.
I have nothing to say, nothing to do.
Between My Life and me,
a silence is coming.
Together, we will not get through this.

Answer 1

uuuuummmmm........................i think someone who had a nice and wonderful life that took care of theirself well had a collapse of some sort and there life was spinning out of control. I think it is a realization that no matter what you do life goes on with or wothout your help.

Answer 2

I don't know ... it seems to be about the whole of the person's adult life. Something along those lines..!

"Somehow it got into my room ... it was, naturally, trapped ... a frightened animal." Life is like that. You push for your independence and you 'find your feet', you 'take your first tentative steps' into adulthood. As you get older, you gain confidence - but your life is slipping away from you, a little further each second - although you don't know it at the time!

"I kept it for myself, kept it in my room," sounds like the beginnings of independence, when you can only be TRULY free of your elders and betters in your bedroom!
"I named the animal, My Life." Just like a teenager shouting "It's MY life, I don't have to listen to YOU!"

The person found their independence / became more mature, only to realise that there's no going back - you can't just become Mummy's little darling again, and you can't become totally immature again, even if you WANT to! "its growth
has nothing to do with food ... it cleans itself" ... it's totally unstoppable once it's begun.


Once you have your independence, you realise that it's not just 'fun & games', it's a big responsibility. And once you're mature, you realise that you can't stop time. Eventually you will die, even if it's only of old age. No more naive belief that you'll never EVER be as old as 20!! (Or even 30 or 40!) Time definitely goes faster as you get older..! It gets out of control, like the animal in the poem.

"a silence is coming." Sounds like this person is feeling old ... after all, the poem IS about 'my life', and death could be described as 'a silence' (among other things.) Remember that old chestnut from funerals, "in the midst of life we are in death." Pretty depressing ...

This is just the basics of my opinion of course - it could take all night to do it thoroughly! Besides, poems are open to personal interpretation, and you'll probably decipher a little bit more of it each time you read it!

Answer 3

it seems to me a breakdown of sorts, a realization in a way. in childhood, you're innocent, you find catterpillers and want to keep them in a cage and take care of them, but what this person found wasn't a catterpiller. it seems the animal she found one day could be a "coming of age" event, when he/she realizes life's potential... feeding it could be something like going to school and learning... and it seems the middle of the poem (before the additional facts) is a midlife crisis... that is, if you follow my thought process... and in this crisis, the author of the poem realizes that all of the work he/she has done to bring him/herself to that particular place in his/her life didn't really matter because life goes on no matter what you do, you can take advantage of it (like in the beginning of the poem by feeding it and caring for it) or you can let it pass (like the end of the poem)

it's as if a depression set in, and the author, at the end, is just waiting for the end.

Answer 4

Wow. I agree with the first responder, but want to take it farther. I think this person feels that although they once felt like they were in control of their life, it is now out of control.

I think the person is terribly lonely, being out of touch even their own life.

Very sad!

Answer 5

The poem tells of existential agony, or angst as Heidger would call it. We are thrown into this world without choosing to "be" only to eventually face an event beyond our comprehension, death.

Answer 6

Upon a seal I found a porpoise stamped it on my passport and was admitted to a hospital porpoise undetermined though records sealed

Answer 7

Like Ana Nalkin's (?) Breathe..... LIfe takes on life of its own. We do not/can not control it. Life goes on with or without our blessing and/or will.

Answer 8

To me/
It could be ones own mind.
The more I read it over and over...I would say Mind?

Answer 9

you have multiple personalities......maybe its one of them