The World

The World
by Robert Creeley

I wanted so ably
to reassure you, I wanted
the man you took to be me,

to comfort you, and got
up, and went to the window,
pushed back, as you asked me to,

the curtain, to see
the outline of the trees
in the night outside.

The light, love,
the light we felt then,
greyly, was it, that

came in, on us, not
merely my hands or yours,
or a wetness so comfortable,

but in the dark then
as you slept, the grey
figure came so close

and leaned over,
between us, as you
slept, restless, and

my own face had to
see it, and be seen by it,
the man it was, your

grey lost tired bewildered
brother, unused, untaken--
hated by love, and dead,

but not dead for an
instant, saw me, myself
the intruder, as he was not.

I tried to say, it is
all right, she is
happy, you are no longer

needed. I said,
he is dead, and he
went as you shifted

and woke, at first afraid,
then knew by my own knowing
what had happened--

and the light then
of the sun coming
for another morning
in the world.

Creeley is able to do some very interesting things within this poem as far as structure and line breaks. It is clear after reading the very first stanza that he decides to have line breaks that go against the "norm." Reading this poem for the first time was somewhat difficult, in the sense that you can't just read each line, but instead you have to, as we discussed in class, be proactive while reading. You have to be able to see the sentences within the lines. However, this was quite hard to do when reading it the first time because I had no sense of what to expect. Furthermore, the structure Creeley decided to use added to the chaos and confusion when reading it for the first time. He used numerous commas throughout the poem, furthering the sense of confusion and chaos. However, after reading through it for the first time, it seemed to flow a little better the second time. Furthermore, I noticed that he had only used four periods throughout the entire poem. This seem to almost reflect the Father poem in that sense; however, Creeley's peom seemed to be relaxing and calm unlike Dickey's somewhat frantic and choppy poem. I believe the line breaks help to add a sense of surrealism to this poem. I truly like how Creeley set this poem up, creating a peaceful and elegant situation throughout all aspects of his poem.