Getting Out by Cleopatra Mathis
No matter what the eyes see, the heart is blind. "Getting Out" by Cleopatra Mathis is a poem about the trials and tribulations of a failed marriage. The language and the tone used by the poet describe the range of emotion at the same time the ex-wife is reliving the experience. This poem's transition occurs when the woman recollects the anger and sadness of her doomed relationship with a man she misses and once loved. The language of the poem paints a very clear picture in the readers mind when attempting to understand the poet's grief. The first two stanzas of the poem are a form of flashback so that the reader may understand the intensity of the disgust between the couple before the divorce. "Waking like inmates who beat the walls," is a simile used by the poet to display the frustration the couple experiences. Using this literary device the poet gives the reader a mental imagine of the couple trying to escape each other because they can no longer cope with being in each other's presence. In the depth of night, the husband a
The poet mentions this because it displays the husbands remaining love, and therefore, she ridicules him for it. The husband's efforts to leave are partly to add pain to the already suffering woman. The woman lets the reader know that the divorce was successful and she now leads an individual life from her ex who now lives on a "separate side of the map" from her. "Getting Out" is cleverly chosen as the title because it tells the reader that the main purpose of the divorce was to "get out" of a terrible situation. nd wife would ignore and avoid each other even though in their hearts knew divorce was the best solution to remedy their problem. Here the reader is introduced to the woman, who has recently been savoring the "last unshredded pictures" of the herself and her ex-husband. This statement alone tells the reader that, along with destroying the marriage, they also damaged the memories of their life together. She states finally, "We held on tight, and let go. The first two stanzas are embellished upon with similes so that the reader can easily understand the animosity in the couple's life. The poet writes, "we cried, the last day" indicating that even though both people knew in their minds that marriage had failed, their hearts were not so quick follow. However, she remembers the pain it caused her to end her marriage, horrendous as the union was. Love was present in the marriage, just not enough to maintain a stable relationship. They also serve to create visual images, so that the reader can conceptualize the couple constant bickering and quarreling. When the reader reaches the last stanza the change occurs.
Common topics in this essay:
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