the art of drowning
I wonder how it all got started, this business
about seeing your life flash before your eyes
while you drown, as if panic, or the act of submergence,
could startle time into such compression, crushing
decades in the vice of your desperate, final seconds.
After falling off a steamship or being swept away
in a rush of floodwaters, wouldn't you hope
for a more leisurely review, an invisible hand
turning the pages of an album of photographs-
you up on a pony or blowing out candles in a conic hat.
How about a short animated film, a slide presentation?
Your life expressed in an essay, or in one model photograph?
Wouldn't any form be better than this sudden flash?
Your whole existence going off in your face
in an eyebrow-singeing explosion of biography-
nothing like the three large volumes you envisioned.
Survivors would have us believe in a brilliance
here, some bolt of truth forking across the water,
an ultimate Light before all the lights go out,
dawning on you with all its megalithic tonnage.
But if something does flash before your eyes
as you go under, it will probably be a fish,
a quick blur of curved silver darting away,
having nothing to do with your life or your death.
The tide will take you, or the lake will accept it all
as you sink toward the weedy disarray of the bottom,
leaving behind what you have already forgotten,
the surface, now overrun with the high travel of clouds.
about seeing your life flash before your eyes
while you drown, as if panic, or the act of submergence,
could startle time into such compression, crushing
decades in the vice of your desperate, final seconds.
After falling off a steamship or being swept away
in a rush of floodwaters, wouldn't you hope
for a more leisurely review, an invisible hand
turning the pages of an album of photographs-
you up on a pony or blowing out candles in a conic hat.
How about a short animated film, a slide presentation?
Your life expressed in an essay, or in one model photograph?
Wouldn't any form be better than this sudden flash?
Your whole existence going off in your face
in an eyebrow-singeing explosion of biography-
nothing like the three large volumes you envisioned.
Survivors would have us believe in a brilliance
here, some bolt of truth forking across the water,
an ultimate Light before all the lights go out,
dawning on you with all its megalithic tonnage.
But if something does flash before your eyes
as you go under, it will probably be a fish,
a quick blur of curved silver darting away,
having nothing to do with your life or your death.
The tide will take you, or the lake will accept it all
as you sink toward the weedy disarray of the bottom,
leaving behind what you have already forgotten,
the surface, now overrun with the high travel of clouds.
my analysis
In the poem "The Art Of Drowning," Billy Collins challenges the idea that once one is dead, ones previous life is insignificant and trivial. Collins illustrates this contreversial and engaging theme through vivid imagery, diction, and extreme changes in tone/attitude. For example, Collins poem states "I wonder how it all got started, this business about seeing your life flash before your eyes while you drown." Collins instant use of piercing diction like the words "flash" and "drown" launch the reader into a series of thoughts about their own personal lives. These emotional anecdotes the reader encounters while reading this quote knocks their breath away, as if they were drowning, placing them into the narrators perspective. Also, the words "compression" and "crushing" in the next stanza push the reader to connect the sounds of the letter c to the sounds of someone plunging into water, along with the popping and deafness of ones ears underwater and in death. These connotations of the sound devices let the reader realize that the action of "drowning" symbolizes the process of death. Because of this connection to the title, when Collins writes in the next stanza saying "in the vice of your desperate, final seconds," the reader understands that the narrators "final seconds" are up, and that he is dead. As the poem continues, the narrator goes on to say "After falling off a steamship or being swept away in the rush of floodwaters, wouldn't you hope for a more leisurely review...how about a short animated film, a slide presentation? ...Wouldn't any form be better than this sudden flash?Your whole existence going off in your face..nothing like the three large volumes you envisioned." Through this line, the reader detects a rapid shift in the narrators tone, moving from a contemplative and stunned trance to a dull and spiritless demeanor. This stark contrast of attitudes deeply re-inform the reader that the narrator is dead, as well does the line "After falling off a steamship.." The significant use of the word after illustrates how the narrator explains how one would've thought that after dying you would view the grand occurrences of your life, when instead you realize how meager and minor your life really was. When the poem says "when your whole existence goes off in your face...nothing like the three large volumes you envisioned," the reader acknowledges how the narrator views his previous life like a worthless slap in the face. As the poem further progresses, it goes on to say "Survivors would have us believe in a brilliance here...an ultimate Light..But if something does flash before your eyes as you go under, it will probably be a fish." The use the word "us" shows how Collins chooses to not only make the narrator dead, but the reader as well. This word forms a sort of dead community, and allows both groups to be classified as one. The reader also observes how logical and practical the narrators tone is as he refers to how the survivors would have thought that it was the "ultimate Light", or God, where as the narrator believes it was and has "nothing to do with...life or death." These different takes on what happened show how the narrator feels that nothing in life, or life itself, is amazing and important. The next line saying "leaving behind what you have already forgotten,the surface..." additionally demonstrates how the narrator possesses none of the passion and fire that comes with life, which symbolizes what the narrator "has already forgotten." Overall, "The Art Of Drowning's" stirring and distinct hints at sharp diction, tone, and imagery validate the theme of how ones perspective of life is meager once one is dead.
PERSONAL REACTION
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As I was reading this poem for the first time, I was instantly grabbed not only by the first stanza, but by the title. An "Art" of something is a field, genre, or perfection of a category of art, so I immediately began to no longer view the title as "The Art Of Drowning" but as "The genre, or the theme Of Dying." The theme of this poem perfectly connects to my new adaptation of the title because the theme of dying is simply not caring immensely for the so called "important" things we cherish and value now. I felt that overall this poem was so shocking and astounding, that I had to read it over and over again to comprehend it. I loved how Collins made the poem visually obvious for all readers,but hid startling ideas and concepts for those who were pulled into digging deeper to find the full meaning of this striking and beautifully constructed poem. Collins opened doors for those who wanted to explore, and yet at the same time made the walk down the hallways to those doors just as gripping.I loved how while drowning symbolized death, it still was a literal term because drowning is a way to die. Not only that, I was shocked at the narrators practicality at the end. I loved how it contrasted with the rest of the poem, and how it shocked the reader with how minuscule the dead narrator views life. Because humans value their lives so much, I felt that this theme and concept was so hard to grasp, making the poem even better! Overall, "The Art Of Drowning" is a beautiful and compelling piece, and successfully sucked the breath and life out of the reader.
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