Maria Hummel’s poem One Life is a relatively recent poem that reflects on both an internal conflict to keep a strong faith and an external struggle to keep her life together through her son’s death. Hummel uses repetition, imagery, rhetorical questions, and the structure of her poem to evoke emotion and convey a message to the reader. By using repetition, imagery, structure, and rhetorical questions Hummel created a meaningful and personable poem. The Ghazal structure Hummel chose to use in this poem allows us to understand her personal story. One Life can openly be interpreted in many different ways, with the main idea being the authors struggle to believe in God and keep her faith after the tragedy of her son’s death. Both the structure
…show more content…
It starts out with Hummel reflecting on when she stopped believing in Heaven. The first two sentences allow us to see that Maria once believed in heaven, but no longer does, and she is not sure when this transformation occurred. Then it changes and Hummel talks explicitly about why she lost faith in Heaven. She starts off by explaining that she was ‘retrieving’ Heaven when she climbed trees. By this I think she means that she was very religious and into becoming more knowledgeable of her faith. She may have also felt free and worriless when she was climbing, “…into the pines’ brittle/crowns” (Hummel lines 3-4). In lines 7-8, we get a slight description that the speaker and her husband got married in September, “…wearing their summer shirts, sleeves of heaven.” (7.8) This was meant to show that she was still religious at the time she got married. The next line, “It was white, there was a bend, and the car spun,” is referencing a car crash and also a shift in time (9.10). The author explains that when this car crash was occurring she prayed to heaven, probably asking for God to keep her safe. Hummel’s choice to use multiple commas in this sentence creates a sense of urgency or panic. The next set of lines creates the image that the accident ended badly and her son is on a gurney, with an oxygen mask. By putting a comma before ‘Mom’ the author creates the effect that her son is in pain, probably …show more content…
Maria Hummel attempts to connect to the reader’s emotions and evokes personal reflection. One Life is a poem that many people may be able to relate to, all in different ways. The majority of people, at one time or another, will experience tragic events that cause them to reflect on their faith and even question whether Heaven exists. One Life explains this struggle on both an internal and an external level. Internally, individuals naturally question our religion and this may externally impact our everyday behavior. Sometimes, people sink so far down that they question whether they even still have any sort of faith in a greater power. This poem works on a personal scale, but can be relatable on a larger scale as well because this is an internal and personal struggle that people all over the world experience. The meaning behind Maria Hummel’s poem is extremely powerful. She wants us to know that we are not alone when we question are faith, but we cannot let this feeling of insecurity overtake our faith in God and our faith in
It starts out with Hummel reflecting on when she stopped believing in Heaven. The first two sentences allow us to see that Maria once believed in heaven, but no longer does, and she is not sure when this transformation occurred. Then it changes and Hummel talks explicitly about why she lost faith in Heaven. She starts off by explaining that she was ‘retrieving’ Heaven when she climbed trees. By this I think she means that she was very religious and into becoming more knowledgeable of her faith. She may have also felt free and worriless when she was climbing, “…into the pines’ brittle/crowns” (Hummel lines 3-4). In lines 7-8, we get a slight description that the speaker and her husband got married in September, “…wearing their summer shirts, sleeves of heaven.” (7.8) This was meant to show that she was still religious at the time she got married. The next line, “It was white, there was a bend, and the car spun,” is referencing a car crash and also a shift in time (9.10). The author explains that when this car crash was occurring she prayed to heaven, probably asking for God to keep her safe. Hummel’s choice to use multiple commas in this sentence creates a sense of urgency or panic. The next set of lines creates the image that the accident ended badly and her son is on a gurney, with an oxygen mask. By putting a comma before ‘Mom’ the author creates the effect that her son is in pain, probably …show more content…
Maria Hummel attempts to connect to the reader’s emotions and evokes personal reflection. One Life is a poem that many people may be able to relate to, all in different ways. The majority of people, at one time or another, will experience tragic events that cause them to reflect on their faith and even question whether Heaven exists. One Life explains this struggle on both an internal and an external level. Internally, individuals naturally question our religion and this may externally impact our everyday behavior. Sometimes, people sink so far down that they question whether they even still have any sort of faith in a greater power. This poem works on a personal scale, but can be relatable on a larger scale as well because this is an internal and personal struggle that people all over the world experience. The meaning behind Maria Hummel’s poem is extremely powerful. She wants us to know that we are not alone when we question are faith, but we cannot let this feeling of insecurity overtake our faith in God and our faith in