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Donald Justice. “One of the twentieth century's most quietly influential poets”. 1925-2004 died at the age of 78 Smart guy, Bachelors degree from Miami U in 1945 Masters from UNC 1947 Studied at Stanford a while And ultimately earned his doctorate in 1954
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“One of the twentieth century's most quietly influential poets” • 1925-2004 died at the age of 78 • Smart guy, Bachelors degree from Miami U in 1945 • Masters from UNC 1947 • Studied at Stanford a while • And ultimately earned his doctorate in 1954 • Taught at big name universities such as Iowa, Princeton etc. etc. • And won a lot of awards/Prizes
“Men at Forty”Introducing a middle aged mans mid life crisis. By Donald Justice
Men at fortyLearn to close softlyThe doors to rooms they will not beComing back to.At rest on a stair landing,They feel it movingBeneath them now like the deck of a ship,Though the swell is gentle.And deep in mirrorsThey rediscoverThe face of the boy as he practices tyingHis father's tie there in secretAnd the face of that father,Still warm with the mystery of lather.They are more fathers than sons themselves now.Something is filling them, somethingThat is like the twilight soundOf the crickets, immense,Filling the woods at the foot of the slopeBehind their mortgaged houses.
“Men at fortyLearn to close softlyThe doors to rooms they will not beComing back to.” • At the midpoint in a mans life they find themselves looking back, at all of their foregone opportunities. • Literally closing the doors to their bedrooms, or even the house they grew up in, they are reminiscent of a past, boyish time.
“At rest on a stair landing,They feel it movingBeneath them now like the deck of a ship,Though the swell is gentle.” • Justice paints a picture, of a poor sulking man cowering and swaying back and forth at the bottom of his stair case. • They feel it, their sudden realization that they are not immortal, and that they can not go back to their lively and promising teenage years.
“And deep in mirrorsThey rediscoverThe face of the boy as he practices tyingHis father's tie there in secret.” • Justice paints another picture, of a sorrowful middle aged man, burying himself into his mirror finding physical evidence of his ageing. • And once again he is reminiscent of the pure innocence and curiosity of his boyhood, when he had his whole life ahead of him.
“And the face of that father,Still warm with the mystery of lather.They are more fathers than sons themselves now.Something is filling them, something” • When he was a boy he was curious and excited to become a man like his father. • But now finding himself there, he cannot bare it. • What is filling them? • Their coming death.
“That is like the twilight soundOf the crickets, immense,Filling the woods at the foot of the slopeBehind their mortgaged houses.” • Crickets in the night, they are always there but we never hear them until we pay attention. • Just as teenagers, we will never think about our coming death until we are closer and more in tune with its realization.
“Filling the woods at the foot of the slopeBehind their mortgaged houses.” • The man is the woods that is wrought with the terminal feeling of his haunting death. • Justice also gives us another picture of a man past the peaks and valleys of his sprint through Youth, finding himself running into the rough and torrential forest of middle aged life • “Behind their mortgaged houses” • Justice introduces life as a cycle of redundancy. That life will go on whether the man likes it or not and that his son will experience the same exact thing. The pain, sorrow and regret of Men at Forty.
Cited • http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/donald-justice • http://matthewkaberline.blogspot.com/2009/04/men-at-forty-donald-justice.html • http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/39
