With a sense of urgency and lost time, Ferlinghetti’s “The Old Italians Dying” vividly depicts Italian men and women near the end of their lives, watching those around them “dying and dying day by day” (44). Ferlinghetti portrays all the characters with enormous veneration, and a reality that commands respect and empathy from the reader. For instance, calling the widows “madre di terra” (mother of land) and “madre di mare” (mother of sea), and describing them as “the matriarchs outliving everyone,” the women take on a strength and spirit unlike that of any other character in San Francisco Poems (46-47).
Born and raised on the east coast, I don’t have half of the San Francisco experiences of everyone in this class. However, the sentiments expressed in this poem by the women in fishnet veils and the old men tanning and listening to the church bells accurately fits most people belonging to that WWII generation. For as long as I can remember, during every trip to visit my grandparents in northern Pennsylvania, I heard about death and funerals, black dresses and grieving friends. My grandparents, along with their siblings and close friends (who are family in every way except by blood), seemed to talk about death and all its tragic effects incessantly. As a child I found this aggravating and depressing, and would leave the room every time the inevitable conversation began. However, as I grew up and (unfortunately) became more experienced with death—as everyone does—I realized that similar to “the old men who are still alive” who “sit sunning themselves in a row” outside of the church, my grandparents too were surrounded by death, stagnant in their place on earth, but watching it circle around them (44). Of course they were affected by death (who isn’t?), but they kept their faces turned up to the sky. They never spoke of their own demise, but instead talked of a future filled with great-grandchildren, leisure time, and of course, old love. And like the men sunning themselves, they are still staying positive about their present, and really living, instead of dying.
1 comment:
It was very enlightening for me to read your take on this poem. I did not notice the strength of women within the poem as a backbone to the family structure. I think despite your concern that you have not had enough experience with San Francisco, your grasp of this poem is very strong. I've grown up in Southern California (of course my first trip to San Francisco was my freshman year at UCSC), but it seems that you are closer to the ideas of this poem than I by far.
I love also how you connected the poem to your own experience and memories. Through your interpretation and imagery (as well as general analysis), I feel I have been better able to understand Ferlinghetti's "The Old Italians Dying."
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