Everyday, someone experiences the loss of a family member or friend. This loss impacts everyone differently. All of us have or will experience the loss of someone close. Some individuals experience intense grief, whereas others are able to move on easily. The poem “English” by Yusef Komunyakaa explores the perspective of a boy who befriends a girl who is later shot to death by soldiers. “English” explores events that occur before the girl’s death.
The poem “While I Slept” by Robert Francis explores the narrator’s experience of loss. English” shares the story of someone living in the time of the Nazis whereas “While I Slept” has no specified time. This makes me think of how humanity is connected through the fact that the loss of someone close impacts us all. This loss shapes the way we behave day to day. Both Komunyakaa’s, “English” and Francis’s, “While I Slept” demonstrate that people are impacted by other people even after they are permanently gone. However, Komunyakaa’s poem argues that losing someone positively impacts the person, are impacted negatively by the loss of someone near and dear.
Komunyakaa’s poem demonstrates that losing someone close impacts us positively. In “English”, the narrator meets a girl who mpacts him during and after their time together. On hearing the voice of the girl, the narrator describes her voice as, “almost America” (Komunyakaa 13). This is his way of saying that what he hears is a representation of the girl’s freedom away from the violence and persecution by German soldiers in Poland. The fact that this is freedom away from German soldiers in Poland is shown when the boy finds the girl, “I eased open the door hidden behind overcoats in a closet. (Komunyakaa 16). This indicates the girl is hidden. In addition, the author’s inclusion of he term, “Vistula” (Komunyakaa 34) indicates that the events whereas Francis’s poem argues that people occur in Poland. The narrator states, “She said, Friend. ” (Komunyakaa 15). The word “friend” has its first letter capitalized to indicate its significance. This is important because the narrator may have considered the girl his friend, or it may have been the only word he understood from her. We consider friends that we trust and learn from.
The girl teaches him English while she also learns English to escape to safety, “She was teaching herself a language/ to take her far, far away,/ & he taught me a word each day to keep secret. ” (Komunyakaa 18-20). This is important because while the girl is in the narrator’s life, she has a positive impact on him. She begins his education in learning English. The girl impacts him even after she is gone. German soldiers kill her and he does not know for a long time. However, he continues learning English even after she disappears. elieve the girl may have been learning English to take her mind away from the situation she was in, and learning English may have given her hope. This hope may have been for safety, not just away to a different country. Teaching the narrator English helped her take her mind off of having to hide too. He may have left to another country, possibly America, as shown in the poem, “This is how I learned your language,” (Komunyakaa 35). The narrator is addressing someone directly about learning English and telling someone the story of the girl.
I assume that he went to America as opposed to another English speaking country because America is mentioned in the poem. To the girl and the narrator, America may have represented freedom, hope, and the idea of living a successful life. I believe this because of the idea of the American Dream is the reason so many people immigrate to America. For this reason, the narrator moving to America would mean he has opportunities that he would not have in Poland under the control of the Nazis. Overall, the narrator is impacted positively by the loss of the girl.
Therefore, “English” proves that the loss of a loved one has a positive impact on us. Francis’s poem demonstrates how the loss of someone close impacts us negatively. In “While I Slept”, the narrator mentions how a woman ensures that he/she sleeps comfortably: “While I slept, while I slept and the night grew colder/ She would come to my oom, stepping softly/ And draw a blanket around my shoulder. ” (Francis 1-3). This shows how during the time the woman is in his/her life, she has a positive impact on him/her, just like how the narrator in “English” is positively impacted by the girl.
The narrator mentions this in past tense because the woman no longer ensures he/she sleeps comfortably. She is dead as shown in the poem, “Now she sleeps, sleeps under quiet rain / While nights grow warm or nights grow colder. / And I wake, and sleep, and wake again / While she sleeps. ” (Francis 9-12). The narrator uses present tense to discuss how the oman sleeps through everything because she is now dead. In the present, the narrator no longer sleeps comfortably because she is not there to ensure he/she is comfortable through the nights.
Originally, the narrator slept through the night. Now he/ she fails to sleep through the night. Change is difficult, especially when it is a change in routine that we are used to. This change generally causes us great discomfort, as shown by the narrator who cannot sleep through the night. In addition, throughout the poem, a period is used to end the line, “While I slept. ” (Francis 4). However, there is no period to end the line, “And I wake, and sleep, and wake again” (Francis 11). When I read these lines and compare them, I find that line 4 is a lot more peaceful compared to line 11.
Line 11 feels incomplete, whereas line 4 feels complete and as if everything is okay. I believe that the author does this intentionally to help us understand how this change feels. As well as losing the woman who ensured he/she slept comfortably, the narrator has lost the feeling of tranquility. As a result, the narrator is negatively impacted by the loss of someone in his/her life. In short, “While I Slept” shows us how the loss of someone we are close to has a negative impact on us.
In both poems, the narrator does not share the name of the person who influences them before and after the person is dead. This is because the authors are trying to convey the message that we all have someone in our lives who impacts us positively while they are alive and losing them impacts us positively or negatively, from the moment they are gone to possibly the rest of our lives. The name of the person that impacts them does not matter to us. It matters to them. Likewise, the name of the people that impact us do not matter to the rest of the world.
They only matter to you and a few other people. We are all nobodies to the world but somebodies to someone. Additionally, both poems use symbolism. ““English” uses the word, “springtime” (Komunyakaa 36) to represent beneficial change. To him, the change is when the girl disappears. “While I Slept” uses the word, “rain” (Francis 9) to represent sadness and despair. This is to show how he feels. After reading these poems several times, I feel like the atmosphere of “English” was contented. To me, “While I Slept” had a more somber atmosphere.
This helps support each poem’s idea on the impacts of loss. Robert Francis’s ” While I Slept” and Yusef Komunyakaa’s “English” prove that people are impacted by others even after these individuals are gone forever. However, “While I Slept” argues there is a negative impact on people when they lose someone whereas “English” argues that people experience a positive impact even through the loss of someone. Regardless of whether loss and permanent change impacts us positively or negatively, it plays a significant role in our personal growth.
