Chrystian Munoz
June 30, 2013
ENGL 112
Essay # 2 Comparative Analysis of Two Literary Texts Deciding For a Way in Life, Trying to Make a New One The poem “Marriage” by Gregory Corso and the poem “I go back to May 1937” by Sharon Olds deal with the main topic of marriages and their different outcomes. The authors want to prove and describe the different scenarios that their lives and others would have turned out if things had been different in the past as well as in the present using fiction as well as drama. Although both poems relate two different scenarios and their stories have no connection what so ever, Corso and Olds explore with imaginary change of events, doubts about life and the pursuit of happiness. All of those components create a connection that seemed inexistent when reading both poems. The beauty of literature is that everything is possible; the writer can change events and scenarios as the story comes along at any time the writer wants. Corso’s poem “The Marriage” transports the reader to different scenarios beginning with two questions. “Should I get married? Should I be good?” (431). Taking the first question as an example, Corso puts a huge amount of pressure into the character with one of the most important decisions that a men or women take in life. In a deeper thought the character imagines his life as poor as well as rich, if he is going to live in a middle class apartment full of rats and roaches or in a beautiful high rise overlooking the New York’s skyline, all of these outcomes depends on who he will chose to marry giving a sense that depending the women he marries he’s financial wealth will be determinant. These transition of events creates two different worlds, two different stories, two different lives, this kind of imaginary transition is only possible in our minds, books, and movies which gives the poem a sense of fiction, but at the end of the poem, reality hits the character as real life does to people giving the character the option to wait his future wife or to look for her. In the other hand, Olds’ Poem “I Go Back to May, 1937” as its own title describes it, the author tries to change the story by time travel. Olds take the character back in time to the year 1937, precisely to the time when the character’s parents are about graduate from collage and form a family, the character in his imagination or dream want his or her parents to prevent to go forward with their relationship as the character dreams “I want to go up to them and say Stop, don’t do it – she’s the wrong woman, he’s the wrong men…”(441). The character goes on describing this dark and horrible journey her of his parents are about to live, it even goes tragical and violent as the character says “you are going to want to die” However this is only the character’s imagination or dream, it can not happened just like in real life, some people wishes to go back in time and correct the mistakes made at some point or prevent an event to happened, but history is written in stone the only way to change it is in an imaginary world.

Not only the change of events help these two poems to create a relation to each other, but also the personality of the characters and their doubts about life relates them even more. In “Marriage” the character is described as confuse, unsure of him self, imagining high quality life when middle to lower class haunts the character. From the beginning of the poem, the character shows confusion in his life and doubtful to make a decision that he doesn’t even know if it will ever happen. Later continues his imaginary relationship meticulously describing each state that he would go thru as a young couple. When imagining his wedding the priest’s words "Do you take this woman as your lawful wedded wife?" (Olds 432) remarking a sense of tradition and the importance of loyalty or maybe just to feel socially acceptable. These small details led me as a reader to the conclusion that the character has many doubts in life, he unsure of him self and very confuse. The discovery of the personality of the character gives the poem a dark side by representing a character with repressed dreams and with a hopples mind. The character in “I Go Back to May, 1937” uses imagination to go back in time to try to change the story of her or his parents to the extent to sacrifice his or her own life for the happiness of her parents. What fascinates me the most in this poem is the part where the character describes the surroundings where the character sees his or her father. “The red tiles glinting like bent plates of blood behind his head,”(Olds 440) it shocked me the way Olds described the red color of the tiles as blood, unleashing in my imagination these dark and difficult things that are yet to come. This simple but at the same time powerful description of the vision of his or her father thru the passage described as blood, explains the reason of the sacrifice she is considering to take if the character had the chance. Is not necessary for Olds to give the reader deeper detail and information to express the miserable life the character has in the poem, also the character expresses how sorry the feelings are for the parents while describing how handsome and beautiful they were and unfortunately how miserable their live turn out to be. Although Corso’s character in “Marriage” interpreters a hopeless and doubtful man about his life, his dreams seems to drive him to the happy place he desires to be. The character knows and states, his happiness could be possible if he could get married and go to his family after work “How nice it’d be to come home to her, and sit by the fireplace and she is the kitchen aproned young and lovely wanting my baby and so happy about me she burns the roast beef”(Corso 432.) No matter if he is rich or poor all he wants is a family to, which will bring happiness to his life and will change it forever. But it all ends there in just a dream, he knows what he needs to do to be happy but it seems that he is just sitting there waiting for the women that will change his life without making an effort to find her as he concludes “Like SHE in her lonely alien gaud waiting her Egyptian lover so I wait”(434.) Waiting for things to come to you is the problem the character has, nothing comes easy in life, fiction or non-fiction, and everything has a price and an effort to make it happen. As the character in “Marriage” which seems to have a lonely and depressing life with the dream that one day his dream girl will come to rescue him, Olds character in “I Go Back to May, 1937” with very little detail but at the same time with the strong message that is possible to find happiness as the character states in the poem “but I don’t do it, I want to live” (441.) referring to the moment in which the character wishes to intervene in the beginning of the relationship of his of her parents, the character shows a sign of hope, that life is not as terrible as it seems and it is possible to be happy, the character takes the example of his of her family to be a better person and chooses his or her life that change the course of time and stop the relationship of his or her parents. As hard as life could be at times that should not be a reason to sacrifice our life, there is always a solution and we could find the light at the end of the tunnel. These two poems have powerful messages between them. In one hand Coros’s poem thought me and re-enforce me that dreams will only be dreams if we wait for them to happen, that in order to accomplish any goal in life we have to go out there and fight for them, if is a good women that I want, or be successful in my career, we must sacrifice many things and expose our selves to find and achieve what we really want. In the other hand I learned from Olds poem that life is difficult and some people do not have the families the would really want, and as horrible as it seems there is no reason to choose between your life and change the course of time to fix other’s mistakes. I desire a family in my future and I have a wonderful relationship with a wonderful girl. I must admit that it was not easy to find that special one that bright your days everyday, and I over come many obstacles in my life to be here and that’s what makes me, me and I would not change it for anything because as I said before there is always light at the end of the tunnel but the light won’t come to us I have to fight thru the dark to get there.