I wasn't actually in love,
but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.
Their eyes met,
and they stared together at each other,
alone in space.
With an effort she glanced down at the table.
You always look so cool," she repeated.
She had told him that she loved him
It takes two to make an accident.
I was within and without.
Simultaneously enchanted and
repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.
All I kept thinking about, over and over, was
You can't live forever; you can't live forever.
we beat on, boats against the current,
borne back ceaselessly into the past.
So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight.
Angry, and half in love with her,
and tremendously sorry, I turned away.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925
I really like this found poem! I interpret it as a woman who is in love with a man. The parts that say, “I wasn't actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity” and “half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away” make me think that the man wasn’t in love with the woman. I feel like the man and woman may have fell into a lustful relationship and the woman fell in love but it wasn’t a mutual feeling. “Their eyes met, and they stared together at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table. You always look so cool," she repeated”. I interpret this part of your found poem to mean that the man is cold and maybe he does not know how to love. The parts of the text you chose for the found poem flow together really well. Nicely put together.
ReplyDeleteI love this! The Great Gatsby is my absolute favorite book. Most people think of it as being such an innocent love story, but it really was an unexplored feeing of lust that drove Daisy and Jay back together. I really like that you used the quote "So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight" because it isn't blatantly about lust or love but it creates a feeling of being sucked in and starting on a ride you can't necessarily get off of, which is a feeling people commonly feel entering a new relationship whether the basis is love or lust.
ReplyDelete