Souls On Ice - Grade: A PDF

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Souls on Ice Essay...

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Souls on Ice In his essay, “Souls on Ice,” Mark Doty sheds some light on his process for writing a new poem. Heopens by describing how he became “struck by the elegance of the mackerel in the fresh-fishdisplay” (“Souls on Ice” 92) at a supermarket in Massachusetts. Here, it becomes evident how the authoris very different from others. He yearns for something more than physical appearances, and rather focuseson the feelings, and metaphors each particular object evokes. Soon, it becomes evident that he’semploying the fish as a metaphor to cope with the loss of a loved one. He refers to the fish as “flashingparticipants” (94), and sees their collective beauty, rather than their single beauty. The author goes on tostate that: “what matters is perhaps not our individual selves, but our brief soldering in the broadstreaming school of humanity— which is composed of us, yes, but also goes on without us.” (94) Theauthor struggles with the idea of loss, and finds solace in knowing that perhaps our life meaning, orindividuality paradoxically lies with our place in society. The impact we leave behind after we die, is thebiggest one of allIn his essay, “Souls on Ice,” Mark Doty sheds some light on his process for writing a new poem. Heopens by describing how he became “struck by the elegance of the mackerel in the fresh-fishdisplay” (“Souls on Ice” 92) at a supermarket in Massachusetts. Here, it becomes evident how the authoris very different from others. He yearns for something more than physical appearances, and rather focuseson the feelings, and metaphors each particular object evokes. Soon, it becomes evident that he’semploying the fish as a metaphor to cope with the loss of a loved one. He refers to the fish as “flashingparticipants” (94), and sees their collective beauty, rather than their single beauty. The author goes on tostate that: “what matters is perhaps not our individual selves, but our brief soldering in the broadstreaming school of humanity— which is

composed of us, yes, but also goes on without us.” (94) Theauthor struggles with the idea of loss, and finds solace in knowing that perhaps our life meaning, orindividuality paradoxically lies with our place in society. The impact we leave behind after we die, is thebiggest one of all...