Essay About Time Moves And W.S. Merwin

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As time moves on, we begin to forget memories, forget old friends who have moved away, and forget ourselves. In W.S. Merwins “To Myself” he displays a little remembrance to our lost pasts. At first I read the poem without reading the title itself. I began to believe he was talking about the death of a close person, or possibly even God. However, once I read the title, it all came together; the person who died was actually himself, his younger life. He says “Even when I forget you I go on looking for you.” It made me think of how as we grow older, we take advantage of the present. We dont stop to play “pretend” anymore, we just cant wait to get another year older. After a couple years, you try and wish to go back to that young child who played with his/her imaginary friend, but we find out too late that it is much easier for time to move forward rather than backwards. “I keep remembering you sometimes long ago but then other times I am sure you were here for a moment before and the air is still alive around where you were” are the next couple of lines to the poem. I believe that this is talking about how sometimes we can find ourselves acting as how we did as children. I know me and my friends will sometimes go and jump on the trampoline, or do kid things. It really takes you back to those times, and gives you such a refreshing feeling to almost possess the blind innocence you once had. This poem really gave me a lot of insight to growing up. Merwin has an effective way of getting life in general across to his readers. The way this poem is constructed its almost as if he is trying to instruct you to stop, look back, and reminisce. It is very insightful and very relatable. People take for granted their younger years and then wish they wouldnt have when things get real. There are days I sit here thinking to myself I remember how badly I wanted to be in high school and now all I want to do is go back and be in middle school and create more memories and truly enjoy the time I had being able to be carefree. Im sure that this thought process does not change even as we get older but if we were able to just take the time now and really savor and enjoy the present we wouldnt worry so much about making up for the past and trying to determine our future. I learned a lesson that it really is okay to just be a kid and be young. It wont always last forever.