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This poem is also about someone close to the poet who has passed, but instead of juxtaposing presence and absence as Levine did, Amichai instead contrasts terror and joy, youth and death, and violence and peace.
The first opposition is built in the first stanza, where the poet points out the reversal of age and wisdom brought about by Dicky's early death. Before he died, Dicky was "four years older [and]…like a father" (3) to the poet. But Amichai has continued past Dicky into old age, and now he is "[the] father, old and grieving" (6).
The contrasts become more concrete as the poem progresses. The third stanza sets "the departure to terrible battles" (11) against the light, bright imagery of "gardens and windows / and children playing" (12-13). The tension established by this image of soldiers marching through blossoms and children's playgrounds sets the reader up for the more sophisticated contrasts and philosophical implications of the conclusion of the poem.
The final stanza is essentially a series of opposing images,...
It starts by contrasting "fallen fruit" to the living "leaves and branches" of its tree (14-15) -- a somewhat simple contrast between life and death. The next contrast, between "sharp thorns" and "soft and green" (16-17) adds another layer by opposing prickly age against benign youth.
The final contrast is the most unexpected and the most meaningful: "And do not forget, / Even a fist / Was once an open palm and fingers" (18-20). The tension presented with this imagery is literally one of closedness and openness, but the fist, with its implication of violence, and the open palm, with its implication of peace, bring the poem to a thought-provoking close by suggesting a common root of war and peace.
Works Cited
Gillan, Maria Maziotti and Jennifer Gillan, eds. Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry. New York City: Penguin, 1994. Print.
McClatchy, J.D., ed. The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry. New York: Vintage, 1996. Print.
Works Cited
Gillan, Maria Maziotti and Jennifer Gillan, eds. Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry. New York City: Penguin, 1994. Print.
McClatchy, J.D., ed. The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry. New York: Vintage, 1996. Print.
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