Willy
Always a gentle man
Too afraid to ask for what he needs
Except from his sons –
Then the fighting proceeds.
Always a determined man
Doing whatever it takes
But never enough
To be content.
A dollar on the fridge –
And two dollars for the roof –
Not to mention the washing machine –
And the vacuum.
Next time dear.
I’ll do better next time.
Why won’t he stop insulting his sons?
Will he finally ask to stop travelling so much?
I worry too much
He tells me not to
Think’s he perfectly fine
He doesn’t know what we see
We can see his mind deteriorating
His memory going
Along with his pride.
He still sees his brother
Young Biff and Happy
Even me – years ago.
Thought he was driving the Chevy the other day
A car we have long since retired.
I am scared.
He’s too reckless a driver now
And every time he leaves
I wonder if he’ll come back.
I’m scared that he won’t come back.
It’s only because I know
One day, he won’t.
This was a poem focused on the fears that Linda felt as she
watched the mental state of her husband slowly deteriorate. In the play, she
constantly goads their sons for not being kind to their father, but she knows
that Willy himself is not being the best father to their sons. She understands
that he cannot help it, as he is clearly losing his touch with reality and is
becoming more and more emotionally unstable, but it upsets her just the same.
Linda also constantly fears Willy killing himself, and she reveals this fear to
her sons, explaining that the car “accidents” Willy was involved in were no
accident. The poem captures Linda’s fears and worries about Willy and her
general sadness over what is happening to him.
As I read through “The Death of a Salesman”
As I read through “The Death of a Salesman”
I started off lost and confused
Yet somehow amused
To see him talking to friends and family long past.
As I read through “The Death of a Salesman”
I began to understand
He was no amusing old man
He was a sad, tired, lonely fellow.
As I read through “The Death of a Salesman”
I worried for Willy
I read on aggressively
Hoping for him to obtain a better fitting job.
As I read through “The Death of a Salesman”
The hopes I had were that, simply,
He would soon cease to be
A danger to himself.
As I read through “The Death of a Salesman”
I saw that there was no way
That Willy would ever say
“I’ve worked far too long, I need to rest.”
As I read through “The Death of a Salesman”
I grew increasingly scared
For poor Willy and how he despaired
Over what was happening as his life fell apart.
As I read through “The Death of a Salesman”
My heart hurt
As I turned the page
And felt immense sorrow
For the fictional characters
In the story.
This poem explains how I, as I read through Miller’s play,
was drawn into the story and became empathetic toward Willy. I became invested
in the characters, and was hoping for a happy ending, but not expecting one. At
the end of the story, I was devastated to read what happened to Willy, and was
effected very deeply.
About A Salesman
A salesman who desires only success
Seems that his energy never expires
Working to satisfy his family
No one could suspect he would ever tire
The man wants only to live lavishly
Like the story he heard quite long ago
Working hard as he can daily, nightly
His main motivator is his ego
Despite his constant and steady protests
There is no more hiding his condition
Fighting his age, and losing the contest
Working hard’s only more ammunition
There is no more hiding the truth of it
He can’t go on, it’s time for him to quit
This sonnet is written about Willy and how hard his life
became to be. A combination of Willy’s flashbacks and present-day conversations
explained Willy’s desperation to be a wonderful, powerful, and wealthy salesman, idolizing a story he once heard of a salesman who was extremely well respected.
However, with age, this goal became harder and harder to obtain until it
eventually became clear that Willy was completely unstable. He could no longer
work as hard as he used to be able to and he was not going to be able to become
the powerful salesman that he had once wished to be.
2 comments:
Jules, I found your poetic rendition of Loman and his situation to be true to the novel, masterful in descriptions, and elegant in prose. Miller's portrayal of Willy Loman in his play Death of a Salesman can be seen in your writing regarding your descriptions of the protagonist. In all three of your poems, the image of Willy Loman is maintained in its relatability and characterization, true to Miller’s original vision.
I found your interpretation of Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, in your poem Willy to be extensive and detailed. Many of your observations on the characteristics of Willy are similar to what I made while reading the play. I agree with your interpretation of Willy as “Always a gentle man/Too afraid to ask for what he needs”(1-2), based upon Miller's character development of Willy as a unsure and prideful man. Additionally, your description of Willy as “We can see his mind deteriorating/His memory going/Along with his pride”() is insightful regarding Miller’s depiction of Willy as a man whose failure resulted in his decline.
Your reference to the Loman’s debt problems in lines 9-12 of Willy-“ A dollar on the fridge –/And two dollars for the roof –/Not to mention the washing machine –/And the vacuum”-develops upon one of the prominent themes of the play that I noticed; the failure of the American dream to be able to sustain a seemingly hard working and dedicated man.
I chose to use one of my two “skips” for this week’s blog. I have never been good at poetry and would not have known where to start in writing poems about The Death of a Salesman. Furthermore, I was not familiar with the different types of poetry the assignment asked for them to be written in. For these reasons, I was very impressed with the quality of these poems.
For starters, my favorite one of your poems was the first one. The main reason I liked it is because it gave a different perspective on the book. The book focuses on Willy and how his mental state is deteriorating rapidly. When reading about the book, it is very easy to feel bad for Willy, however, even easier to forget to feel bad for his family members, like his wife, who his problems are affecting the most. Furthermore, I liked how this poem very craftily tied in all the pieces of his life falling apart such as his financial situation, his imagining of situations, and his ultimate path to death.
Moreover, I thought that the poem from the reader’s perspective was also very unique as your perspective as reader writing it is the same perspective in which I viewed the events as a reader. In this poem I really enjoyed the repetition you used as it emphasized how much was changing despite you staying in the same position as a reader.
Overall, I thought that your writing style was very creative in writing these poems. The thing I am most nervous for in AP Lit is poetry as I cannot see myself writing poetry of this caliber.
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