We live, we die, and sometimes our deaths are unseen and inevitable. The loss of a loved one whether it be a friend, brother, sister, mentor, father, or mother, brings about a wide array of feelings and emotions. Pain, regret, sorrow, grief, depression, and denial are all responses to such a tragic incident. In the poem “Myth” by Natasha Trethewey, we can see this being demonstrated. The death of her mother is what triggered Trethewey to become a poet-so she could make sense of what happened. She can only see her loved one in her sleep; visiting those who past in dreams and waking only to realize that they are gone forever-constantly forsaking. To fully understand the context of this poem we need to understand who and what Trethewey is talking…show more content… Like a mirror image, it starts backwards from “again and again, this constant forsaking” to “my eyes open” (l.10). This form of text really stresses what state the speaker is in. She is in “constant” pain and grief and is constantly in battle with acceptance. The pain the speaker is in is on a cycle, or a loop. Just when she finds some ease in her sleep, she wakes up to know the unfortunate reality that her mother is no longer here. “You back to morning, sleep-heavy turning” gives the audience the impression that the speaker is going back to her slumber. When the speaker goes back to her slumber that’s when she “dreams” her mother is alive and tries so hard “not to let go” (l.14). It seems that the pain and discomfort the speaker is in only subsides when she goes into her slumber where she can imagine her mother still being alive. In line 15 it says, “The Erebus I keep you in-still, trying-.” The tiresome effort to keep her mother alive outside of her dreams is really showing. There is a pause between “still” and “trying”; the deep sigh that is released when multiple efforts have been made but no progress is present can be heard directly in that line. The speaker has obviously done this every time she goes into her slumber, and is enable to accept the loss of her mother and therefore is in constant
