The Life Of Donald Justice
The Life of Donald Justice
Donald Justice is a poet who has had some of the best poems from American literature, along with the lifestyle that is shared by most striving artists1. He has worked his way through life with many occupations and experiences under his belt, with the same diversities possessed by his poems3. Some of these poems include "Men At Forty," "For A Freshman Reader," "Poem," and "Incident In A Rose Garden" and show a great difference in tone. Not every poet has the same way of showing a different tone for their poems; sometimes, poets keep to one style of writing and stick with it. Donald Justice works his own weave for these poems, each individual to one another.
"Men At Forty" is a poem written by Justice, which isn't all about personal experience, but is more or less about the standard man at middle age7. As the poem begins, the ubiquitous narrator refers to the fact that "Men at forty learn to close softly doors to rooms they will not be coming back to," which is a metaphor for the decisions that cannot be taken back or changed. Closing softly refers to the way most males are about decisions, brash and make a lot of risks that aren't normally referred to as "Softly" closing. Then the narrator refers to life as a voyage on "the deck of a ship," which is a metaphor for the way that men are carried through their life without the ability to go back or try again, but are on a course that is unchangeable7. "The face of the boy as he practices tying his father's tie in secret," is explaining the preparation for being a middle aged man from childhood. Then "the face of that father" is more or less another sign that men will ultimately suffer the same life at forty that his father had before him7. The subtle message here is that Justice does not want to be bound by the same bonds that held his forefathers1, but remake his own and not follow the same mordant existence that is supposed. Justice knew that the "normal" ways of life...
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