James Merrill has an impeccable portfolio of plays, essays and his specialty, poems. The strict, formal works of his earlier career evolved into deep explorations of the personal psyche, carved out of its subjective interaction with the world. In sampling Merrill's poems, I observed his particular enchantment with the particularities of life. Throughout his works, Merrill demonstrates an innate fascination with the passage of time, revisits the concept of loss, and frequently engages in introspection. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original Essay A harmless concept that Merrill often attempts to explore in his work is the passage of time. It interprets and uses the passage of time as a transitional device to reveal truth or act as a harbinger of change. A decidedly arrogant mirror turns into a crumbling, submissive mess who succumbs to jealousy in the mirror. Time serves as the carrier of the degradation of the ego – how it begins as a simple crack and develops into irreparable fissures that threaten the structural and moral integrity of the mirror. The golden mirror, once confident in its thinking abilities and satisfied with the attention it receives, becomes a shattered shell of its former glory as it rests in the shadow of the revered window. The time jump, evident in "Years Later Now", serves as a progressive element emphasizing the longevity of envy's crippling effects. I witnessed time distortion in the Black Swan, where a moment in time is extended throughout the structure to create an immersive, controlling subset of reality intended to alter the senses. A child observes a black swan as it crosses a lake, but in doing so, Merrill takes the opportunity to define the wisdom and symbolism that the mystical bird possesses. The water of the lake symbolizes the flow of time and the way the living pass through it - represented by the swan wading in its gentle waves. What happened in an instant seems to continue for years and allowed one character in the poem to undergo a spiritual change. Time is rather a vague construction explored in Manos Karastefanes. The entire structure of the poem presents a chronological progression of time that evolves from childhood to later stages of life, a sensible method of organizing thought. Although this is a basic structure, it provides a basis of understanding from which the resulting events will eventually unfold. For example, it is explicitly mentioned how the narrator learned about "heaven and hell" from a childhood friend's mother, and then experienced contrasting events varying between them. from a horrible war to healing. “Heaven and Hell” is a comparison that belatedly juxtaposes with the appearance of “War and Peace,” a novel whose title serves as an ironic but deliberate comparison to echo two opposing poles that depend on one of the other to exist. Time is an element that allows events to be consequential; of cause and effect in this poem, and how it retains a tendency to repeat itself. Loss is a universal experience shared by all, but one that maintains individuality through the many coping mechanisms that exist. Merrill revisits the myriad objects, people, or concepts that can get lost, and the resulting effects on the mind. The mirror, as previously stated, revolves around a selfish mirror whose qualities mimic its physical purpose:represent appearance. The once confident reflective surface experiences neglect and corrosive jealousy due to the fact that the window attracts the unconditional attention of children. Years later, the grandchildren, recently grown, exclaim: “How superficial appearances are!” ” which is a jarring and incisive statement to the mirror. By criticizing appearance, they have effectively diminished the function of the mirror and therefore it experiences a loss of ego and form. The mirror cracks and crumbles from a once pristine image, "as if a fish had broken the perfect silver of my reflection", which are outward representations of his crumbling ego and depreciation. The Black Swan explores loss both through the loss of a child's innocence and through the symbolism existing in the black swan itself. The seemingly dark supernatural beast calls a young boy, who has "white swan thoughts", to the lakeside. The “white ideas of the swans” suggest that the child only believed in the existence of a holy world and yet it was intact. However, at the end of the poem, the youth strives to reach the unattainable bird by shouting "I love the black swan", representing his fall from purity as he succumbs to the seduction of the mysterious demon feathered. Merrill also explicitly states Waterfowl's understanding of loss, citing how she has "learned to enter the lost secret center of grief." The black swan serves as a symbolic entity of universal knowledge - an omniscient form capable of tightly coiling the cords of sorrow within itself and existing with the infinite icy pain that persists within them. Manos Karastefanes also revisits the concept of lost innocence through the death of the protagonist's father. Twelve is not an optimal age to become manly, but by inference, the character in this poem took responsibility as a necessity. The father, in particular, traditionally exists as the head of the family and therefore, upon his death, the boy was forced to give up his childhood in exchange for strength. The miner inevitably becomes a young man who serves in the army. Experiencing large amounts of violence cripples the human condition, as evidenced by the apparent physical injuries suffered by the boy-turned-soldier. The last shreds of innocence have been torn away by the atrocities of war. Merrill advantageously uses his profession as an opportunity for personal reflection. While his early work consisted primarily of bland, formulaic content, he delved into the most abundant resource of insight he possessed: his mental catalog of life experiences. Merrill's personal fascination and experience of living in Greece emerges in Mirror, through the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus. Similar to the attractive but insolent young man, the mirror is punished for his hubris by meeting a collapsing demise at the hands of his own ego. The inclusion of this allusion serves to reinforce Merrill's belief in the truth in the Greek myths, particularly regarding how they possess revelations about human nature. A more deeply personal reflection is revealed through the window which embraces “an entire world without once worrying about putting it in order”. The transparent panes allow a literal glimpse of the rest of the world that preaches awareness and receptivity, a perspective somewhat out of reach for the privileged Merrill during his early years. The Black Swan presents an impersonal contemplation focused on the impending events that would bombard a young Merrill until he had adopted a mature mindset. The swan can be interpreted as an assumption of all the sorrows and grievances of..