Williams’ “This Is Just to Say,” Cummings’ “I(a,” and Erdrich’s “Love Medicine” all look towards the thoughts, actions, emotions, and responses to the surrounding environment that we as humans encounter and struggle to express humanistic features. Such writings show popular attributes of envy, selfishness, and lust help further the understanding of human action and thought.
An emotion we all encounter from time to time is loneliness, the theme of “I(a.” The structure of the poem is similar to a leaf falling to the ground. As that leaf leaves its’ coterie and falls, it reaches the ground, finding loneliness. The leaf departs from its’ surroundings and its family to embark on a lonely road to the bottom. And just like the structure of the poem, humans are complicated. Our emotions are not always just displayed on a page. Sometimes, it is encoded and hard to decipher as was this poem.
The previous poem is similar to “Love Medicine” by comparing the loneliness of a leaf to the emotions of the grandma. When the grandpa passes away, the grandma is overwhelmed with grief and detachment. Just like the leaf that falls from the tree, the grandma falls from her family. She feels as if she must travel this downward journey alone. The feeling is mutual with the grandpa who comes back to the family. “Go back” says the narrator, who is convinced that the being does not belong with them anymore. “You got to be with your own kind now.” The grandpa’s being is detached from his family. As he seeks acceptance after death, he is told he must go down his path, one that does not involve them.
Let us not forget human action and thought that exist in “This Is Just to Say.” The character eats a plum, and then apologizes for it, although such apology seems sarcastic and unsympathetic. Such human characteristics fall under selfishness. Selfishness, lust, envy, and others occupy the human mind. We see this in the lustful actions of the grandpa and the envy of the grandma. Human responses towards such environments and situations show humanistic features that are developed in each reading.
