Can someone help me understand this poem?

Question

As I Grew Older


It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun--
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky--
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!


I think that it is talking about trying to accomplish your dream before its too late.

Is there something I am missing because I feel like I am.

Answer 1

I'd say that it's a bit more about growing older and realizing that the dreams you had in youth aren't going to come true for you, even as a part of you still clings to them.
The truth is, most people's lives go just that way. We all have grand dreams when we're young. Among the 2.5 million or so young people who will graduate from high school this year, there are certainly many thousands who think they could be President of the United States, thousands more who expect to become professional athletes or entertainers, astronauts, Nobel Prize-winners....Precious few will actually do those things. Most will reach middle age and realize it's never going to happen for them. (That realization may be the first stage of "getting old.")
Still, deep inside, those dreams can persist, and I think that's what this poet is addressing.

For me, a bit of luck did enter the picture after I thought my story had already been written, and a whole new life began for me---at 44. (Check out my blog, Koko.)

Answer 2

Wow, that poem is amazing. Okay here it goes...

The title "As I grew older" indicates the subject of the poem; How the passing of time effects something. In this case, our dreams. The narrator starts out as a youth, and just as all of us did and do, the narrator had endless, countless dreams for the future. The wall is a metaphor for the passing of time. Just as time passes slowly onward, so did the wall rise upward. Describing time as a wall, the narrator depicts time as a barrier between us and our dreams, slowly but surely cutting us off. The shadow mentioned, I feel as if that is a metaphor describing old age. Using words like "black" and "shadow" to put a negative spin on old age, the narrator depicts old age as debilitating in regards to realizing your dreams. At least at first. "My hands! My dark hands! Break through the wall!" The narrator uses "hands" as a metaphor to describe "knowledge" or "skill", and adding "dark" to it indicates that the knowledge is knowledge aquired though expierience of old age. The narrator turns his weakness into strength,thus, the expierience that comes with old age is used to "break through the wall" or, in other words, overcome the negative, debilitating aspects associated with old age, allowing the narrator to realize the "thousand whirling dreams Of sun!" "Sun" being a metaphor for youth.

Overall, I feel the narrator is trying to advise us to never give up on our dreams. We sometimes abandon our dreams because we feel we are too old to accomplish them, but in reality, the wisdom and expierience that comes with old age can be the greatest tools that we can use to make those dreams come true.

Wow, that was a great poem!!! I don't know how close I came to what the author was really trying to say, but I hope my analysis was at least helpful to you. Sorry my responce was so long, but I couldn't stop until I was done. Good luck.
Regards, Siekuto.

Answer 3

Its about having loss of vision, inspiration and imagination as the obstacles in life..'the wall' loom up to cloud the light of his dream. The poet is being defeated 'slowly' by this rising wall until he is merely a 'shadow of his former self'.He almost gives up..'I am black.. i lie down in the shadow'
It is a cry invoking himself to break down the barriers.. to smash them into thousands of fragments so that his dream can shine through victorious again.
There is an interplay of imagery.. 'light and dark' with the ending an even more powerful image of a thousand whirling dreams of sun.. spinning around him again..
This is a great poem. I love it!! Who wrote it?

Answer 4

specific, I comprehend it. I do think of there's a distinction with fondly looking back and recalling specific ideas of the existence you have lived so some distance, as against spending plenty time interior the previous which you in no way see the sweetness or splendor that surrounds you immediately.that's an argument of approach i think of. maximum persons as we mature and see throughout the eyes of slightly know-how, mirror on the previous and want we would have completed some issues in any different case. yet i attempt to stay for immediately and enjoy daily and each guy or woman, it fairly is constrained in my existence. i do by no ability elect to rob myself of immediately because of the fact I stay too plenty on the day gone by.that's an extremely effective and reflective poem that we can all relate to.

Answer 5

I think it's about losing hope. I think the wall represents the hurdles of everyday life that, brick by brick, grow between the narrator and her dreams. She is pleading to help her break through the walls and regain sight of her dreams and hope for the future.

Answer 6

I think its about pushing through any thing that is blocking your way to your dream b/c she/he wants to 'shatter the darkness' and 'break through the wall', not necessarily accomplish it before you are too late, b/c she/he had no way to stop the wall.

Answer 7

Picture a dream or something that you really wanted or needed and you were right there close enough that you can smell it but suddenly, it is slowly taken away from you or something or someone stopped you from having it. Now all you want is to smell it again....

That is what the poem is all about....

Answer 8

no, you got it. though it's also about not letting things get in the way of your dreams. or in other words not letting them go. at first you have dreams, then you let other things get in the way, you lose sight of your dream, but find it again by pushing the things that were holding you back out of the way, and then you accomplish your dream!

Answer 9

I agree with you. In youth we have dreams. Then, most of us, get caught-up in our vested interests; spending forty years or so sucking up to management and power (the very high wall), or lose our home, family, pension, social security, medical insurance..........life.

Answer 10

Sounds like the writer was in a deep depression, but it lifted