List of greatest songs you’ve probably never heard of

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America by Claude Mckay

This is a poem which I can say I can personally relate to. As someone who is not accustomed to the American way of life, the cultural shock took some time to getting used to; especially the individualistic and lonesome lifestyle that people living in America have to live through. Back in my home country, people and societies are not individualistic at all. People live in tight-knit communities and families where your progress in life is determined the people living around you. If you are a male, then in my culture (and in the whole of South Asia too) you are expected to live with your parents throughout your life. Even if you are a girl, you will be living with your parents until you get married and then, move into your husband’s.. and parent-in law’s home.That is the reason why parents and children share a very deep and intimate relationship in my part of the world.

It was very difficult for me to leave my family and come and adjust in  America, where you do not know a soul.That is why, I believe I share the poet’s beliefs that the sufferings and hardships he has to face in this country will make a better person out of him. Like him, I too, feel that this struggle is a good thing and “love this cultured hell that tests my youth”.

The Essay Poem

The Poem that I selected for my essay is Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden, which I think is both beautiful and poignant at the same time. May be this is the reason why it is considered as one of the best works of Auden. At first glance, I thought the poem was basically trying to say how people move on with their own lives, with utter apathy and indifference, despite witnessing great misfortunes of other hapless people.Or, to put it in other words- “life goes on” and “the show must go on”, no matter what happens .A great many catastrophic events have befallen upon mankind in history- plagues, natural disasters, world wars, holocausts and genocides; but it has not stopped the turning of the world. People have still moved on. People who were not so…..unlucky? This poem may be subtly referring to a  universal human tendency to act as passive bystanders when other people are going through evil-”…the ploughman/ may have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,/ but for him it was not an important failure; the sun still shone…”

The Five Stages of Grief

by Linda Pastan

 

The night I lost you
someone pointed me towards
the Five Stages of Grief
Go that way, they said,
it’s easy, like learning to climb
stairs after the amputation.
And so I climbed.
Denial was first.
I sat down at breakfast
carefully setting the table
for two. I passed you the toast—
you sat there. I passed
you the paper—you hid
behind it.
Anger seemed so familiar.
I burned the toast, snatched
the paper and read the headlines myself.
But they mentioned your departure,
and so I moved on to
Bargaining. What could I exchange
for you? The silence
after storms? My typing fingers?
Before I could decide, Depression
came puffing up, a poor relation
its suitcase tied together
with string. In the suitcase
were bandages for the eyes
and bottles sleep. I slid
all the way down the stairs
feeling nothing.
And all the time Hope
flashed on and off
in defective neon.
Hope was a signpost pointing
straight in the air.
Hope was my uncle’s middle name,
he died of it.
After a year I am still climbing, though my feet slip
on your stone face.
The treeline
has long since disappeared;
green is a color
I have forgotten.
But now I see what I am climbing
towards: Acceptance
written in capital letters,
a special headline:
Acceptance
its name is in lights.
I struggle on,
waving and shouting.
Below, my whole life spreads its surf,
all the landscapes I’ve ever known
or dreamed of. Below
a fish jumps: the pulse
in your neck.
Acceptance. I finally
reach it.
But something is wrong.
Grief is a circular staircse.
I have lost you.

The central theme of this poem is the five stages that a grieving person goes through– denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. This notion that grief has five stages was first introduced by the famous Swiss Psychiatrist- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. According to her, these are the basic stages a bereaved person goes through; but, not necessarily in the same order. In case of some people, depression may set in  before bargaining or anger, while some may never reach the acceptance stage. Talking about the poem, what I like about  it is that it evocatively describes the pain that must be endured in order to surpass the stages of grief. Although I have not fathomed  every line of this poignant poem, I really loved the part where she mentions hope.

about me

Hello everyone ,

My name is Abhishek Dangol and I am from the Himalayan nation of Nepal. For those who have never heard of Nepal before( I am sure there are quite a few), it is where Mount Everest lies and where Buddha was born around 2500 years ago. Like most people in my country, I am a Hindu. I arrived in US on new year’s eve of 2008. I spent my first semester in Oklahoma but decided to transfer here because most of my close friends are studying in Houston. So far, I am enjoying my stay in America and have met a lot of interesting and kind-hearted people over the past eight months. I like to play the guitar and listen to rock music. I also enjoy travelling and reading novels. Some of my favorite writers include Chekhov, Goethe, Erich-maria Remarque and Dostoevsky.