The Persistence Of Memory Poem Analysis

The opinions that people possess are often shaped by their own pasts, the people surrounding them, or even by what they read. The poet, Deb Westbury, has the ability to shape individuals minds, and school of thought, through her poetry. She takes advantage of the universal issues that effect the world, and creates poetic masterpieces, like 'Shells ' and 'The Persistence of Memory ', that challenge her responders to form their own opinions and ideas. Many of her readers, respond to the themes of life and death, and loss, due to level of engagement these issues bring. Her prowess to capture details through subtle observation and diverse perspectives, conveys her understandings of the issues bordering our world. Everyday the world brings …show more content…
Even in aging, death is slowly creeping closer, and eventually the reality of it all catches up. Westbury 's poem "The Persistence of Memory" explores the pain and confronting chaos of war, as she compares it to her traumatic experience of child birth. Immediately responders are thrown into the image of a 'bloody war zone ', "smoke grey sky alight with bursts of autumn foliage" is creating a striking visual image of enormous explosions and flames. Already, this evokes a feeling of distress and trouble for responders. Westbury perfectly captures the sense of war and compares it to her confronting experience of a Caesarean. However, Westbury 's poem "Shells" explores the idea of aging and from the perspectives of retirees in stanza 4, describes the mundaneness of their lives. This is used to emphasise the normal progression of aging and how repetitive it can be. 'Shells ' still supports the situations of life and death, however death does not seem as confronting, instead the idea of death is built up to, because of the cyclic structure Westbury uses. She conveys a long and tiresome process of slowing crossing over to the afterlife, and compares the tides changing to life ending. . "You …show more content…
Yet as soon as one experiences loss, their perception of the world has significantly changed. 'The Persistence of Memory ' follows the war story of a German woman named Inge. Her traumatic experience is drawn out in the first stanza, and it is extremely confronting. Inge 's world has, to a great degree, been completely transformed. Westbury creates a visual image of Inge 's life after the war, and portrays her new views and decisions. "The dreams of more then children turned to ashes" highlights how Inge 's scarring experience has literally obliterated her dreams of having her own children. There is no doubt, that the memories she has are filled with blood, and death, and someone with that perception of the world, would never want their child to live in a world like that. "In the wombish silence" further expresses the loss Inge is experiencing. The word "womb" does make one think of security and safety, however, it also reinforces the literal sense that Inge 's womb will 'always be silent ', because will never give birth and, she has lost that maternal wonder a woman has for a child. This type of loss and sadness, brought onto Inge 's life, generates feelings of sympathy from responders. In a similar way, Westbury 's 'Shells ' expresses loss, however in this case it is the innocence and childlike wonder that age steals from a person. "The tide of your youthful dreams your working life