To Myself
W.S. Merwin
Even when I forget you
I go on looking for you
I believe I would know you
I keep remembering you
sometimes long ago but then
other times I am sure you
were here a moment before
and the air is still alive
around where you were and I
think then I can recognize
you who are always the same
who pretend to be time but
you are not time and who speak
in the words but you are not
what they say you who are not
lost when I do not find you
When I read this poem, I first thought it was about missing somebody. Another idea that came to mind was searching for a soul mate. He knows what he is looking for, but is just waiting for her to come. As I read it for the second time, keeping the title in mind, I realized that instead of searching for or missing somebody, it was about missing yourself. I like this poem because it is symbolic of how you can change into a completely different person with time. In the first part of the poem he is talking about the past and how it is always with you. The last lines of the poem are saying that even if I'm not looking for my past doesn't mean it's lost.
In line three, Merwin says I believe I would know you. When he says this I think he was referring to himself in the past. My reasoning behind this is because he would know himself earlier in his life. In lines 6 and 7 he says, I am sure you were here a moment before. This is another example of why I believe he was remembering himself. A real life example is when you do or say something that you would have when you were a kid. Even though you aren't a kid anymore and lost the mentality of a child, you can still have moments where the kid in you comes out.
