Tristan's Essay!

Tristan Yerkes

Mr. Salsich

English 02

6 April 2009

“Parting is such sweet sorrow”, almost everyone knows this famous Shakespearian quote from Romeo and Juliet, but the concept of parting also has meaning in “Adios” by Naomi Shihab Nye, “Untitled” by Emily Dickinson, and my life. The concept of parting is tough, and many have to deal with it in their lives. In this essay, we will examine how parting affects these two poems and my life.

My life is full of parting, I part with friends on a yearly basis, and I started my school career by moving around a lot. My school career has been recovered from this, some may say, shaky foundation, but this just goes to show that parting makes us stronger. This strength of parting is built off of the basis of independence from common people, places and things. I say common people because everyone needs to depend on something, and my independence is just the relocating of my common dependence to constants in my life, like myself, my family, my camp, and the joys in my life. These constants regulate my dependence, the things I cannot part from, but my strength itself helps me be free, go places, and do things. The strength that allows me this freedom to part with things is basically the strength to cut earthly ties, and leave what is important to me. When I have to leave what is important to me, I do not hesitate to part, this is how I mustered up the courage to go away to my summer camp, which later became a constant in my life. I say it is courage that drives me to part from my friends, family, and homes, many would perceive this as pure heartlessness, and that I simply do not have strong bonds with my friends. The bonds I have with my friends are very strong, as many would agree, and I do not part from them for lack of caring about my friends, family, or home. I part because my dependence is elsewhere, with the constants I cannot part with, I do not need my friends at the my current home for survival, and I think many of them do not need me. In a way, my relocation of dependence may be viewed as a bad foundation for life, but my strength through parting has made me very good at balancing, whereas many have built their foundations strong, but very confined, causing their lives to topple when they have to grow. (Loose Sentence)

Despite others’ life foundations, Ms. Nye’s poem, “Adios” gives views as to how the narrator of the poem, presumably Nye, accepts parting, and uses it for strength. This strength is shown through symbolism in the second and third stanza. The symbolism is shown by the narrator telling the reader to take the parting, and the feelings associated with that parting, and make them strengthening parts of one’s life. These strengthening parts of one’s life are marriage shown as a “golden ring” one must “marry” parting and freedom, shown as “wings”, one must “strap [parting] on [one’s] back”. As well as symbolizing how you must treat that parting, showing how that parting helps you, and saying this in a strong, and insightful way, “Adios” shows that you must think of the things you are parting with to be strong. (Periodic Sentence) When Nye says, “Think of things that linger”, she tries to enhance (SAT Fast Word) the feeling of parting with unwanted things, that lie around, and “linger” so that one can understand the concept of parting better. This comprehension of parting with lingering things helps, but Nye also talks about parting with good things when she says, “Think of what you love best.” Along with making one think about good things that they part with, Nye shows how accepting the feelings associated with parting can strengthen one.

Ms. Nye’s poem expresses some of the best ways to feel about parting, but Ms. Dickinson’s untitled poem shows how parting affects one’s life. Parting affects one’s life, first in a pessimistic way. This pessimistic way is the idea of looking at the good things in life, and only thinking about how you have to part with them. The idea of only thinking about parting with good things is expressed when Dickinson says, “Parting is all we know of Heaven”, saying that “we” only know that we must part with heaven. Heaven is mentioned in the second to last line, but the last line mentions hell. Hell is mentioned in the last line, when Dickinson says, “[Parting is] all we need of hell. This is showing that parting basically is the symbolic hell, and that all we need for hell is to experience parting. To experience parting is an experience that can have many mixed and melancholy (Fast Word) feelings, many of which are shown in Ms. Dickinson’s poem.

Ms. Dickinson’s poem displays excellent points about parting, as do the other two paragraphs. Parting can be shown in many different ways, and whether it is displayed as sweet sorrow, or being shown as a strengthening force, parting has a huge impact on many people. Many have benefited from Parting, and many have suffered, but at this point, my thoughts will part with this essay.

SA

I think that I did a great job managing my time, and finally mastering periodic sentences.

I think I need to improve my transitions. (also, Mr. Salsich, I did underline all of my transitions, but the blog doesn't have underlining, so could I maybe just show you or e-mail it to you or something?)