Memories

We all have memories; they are part of our human nature. In the poems “Bored,” “My Papa’s Waltz,” “The Video,” and “Fern Hill” each poet writes about a certain memory they have had. Some may be more extensive than others, and some may be more comical or more serious, but they are all memories. All four events made a significant impact on the poets because they are all from when they were much younger than they were when they wrote the poem.

In “Bored,” the poet Margaret Atwood tells of her memories of helping out a man with his work. She did things like holding the log while he sawed it, holding a string while he measured it, weeding, and many other things that she would repetitively do each day. She brings up after almost every task how she was bored with it. She did not enjoy doing those tasks at all but in the end states “Now I wouldn’t be bored. Now I would know too much. Now I would know.” Looking back on the tasks she performed day after day she now realizes she shouldn’t have allowed herself to be so bored, and if she were to do the same things today she would feel differently. Helping with these tasks were a big part of her life and something that she will never forget, especially now when she has different feelings towards them.

Memories with our parents are important to many people and it is the main theme of Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz.” His memory is also a recurring one, of the whiskey on his breath, dancing with him and roughhousing with him. He would be “waltzed off to bed” which is very important in a child’s life because what happens at the very end of the day is what is most remembered. It seems that the poet is somewhat longing for what used to be with his father, he enjoyed the roughhousing that would end their day together, describing it as a waltz making it dreamier and less like the roughness between a father and son.

The tone of Fleur Adcock’s “The Video” is much more comedic than the first two poems. It is about the birth of a little girl, Laura, and how her father videotaped it on his camcorder. Laura had an older sister, named Ceri, who watched the birthing take place with her father, aunt, and midwife. It explains in the second paragraph how once Laura was born she was quite busy and Ceri would watch the video over and over again. When I first read the poem I had to laugh a little bit to myself picturing a little girl watching her little sister being born over and over again. After reading it over a few more times I think that perhaps when Fleur Adcock states “She watched Laura come out, and then, in reverse, she made her go back in,” Ceri is wishing that she could make Laura “go back in” so life would return to what it was beforehand. Again, the main character of the poem is thinking about memories, memories of her sister’s birth and how life was before it.

The final poem Dylan Thomas’ “Fern Hill,” again speaks about when the poet was young. He is speaking about how vivid of an imagination he had, and how he was “carefree.” He mentions several times “nothing I cared” which proves his point of the bliss of childhood. He recalls having many different personas and adventures such as, “prince of the apple towns,” “I lordly had the trees and leaves,” and “I was a huntsman and herdsman.” By the end of the poem we can see that he longs to still be this carefree and imaginative. He states that “time held me green and dying,” he like all humans had the fate of becoming older and losing the feel of childhood bliss. His memories are very nostalgic, wishing that life could still be so carefree.

Each day we are making memories, whether they will be long term or short term, everything we do affects who we are as a person. Whether our memories are fondly remembering what once was or wishing there was something we could do to change it, they stay with us and impact us in some way. Each memory in its own way is important.