An Analysis of Poem Why Can’t I Leave You?
An Analysis of Poem Why Can’t I Leave You?
After first reading for Ai’s poem Why Can’t I Leave You, we could be easily impressed by the helplessness and misery of the woman speaker. What a bad marriage she is in and the most miserable thing is that she is not able to escape from that cage-like matrimony.
The poem starts with the dreadful behavior of her husband. He stands behind the old black mare. He is “dressed as always in that red shirt, stained from sweat, the crying of the armpits” (Ai). He strokes the mare’s rump “while the barley goes unplanted” (Ai). These images illustrate a dirty, lazy, unambitious, and depressing figure. That makes the wife lose hope again for their future. But the greedy from her heart lets her insist on expecting some change from her husband. She keeps to tell herself again and again that her husband could turn better in future. So every time she is about to give up, she can always find excuses to stay. This time she manages to convince herself of her dream once more and finally unloads the suitcase.
In the whole poem, no words are used to describe the psychological struggling from her heart. But the word “as” can give us a clue that the wife is not willing to leave, and she is only pretending to leave. No matter how their marriage is formed and how beloved or not to each other before, now the marriage comes to an embarrassing stage. The wife and the husband are just used to the existence of each other, but many other things get lost in the life. The action of smoothing the hair back from the forehead of her husband is also the process of persuading herself into compromise in the relationship. Because it is already a fact that her current husband is a defeated role in life. However, it can’t be guaranteed that next man must be a stronger one, either. Someone says that marriage is a demon detector. Most people will reveal their real sides in life. When a person turns out to be another, to stay or leave, it is a dilemma. Thus, it is justified that the wife hesitates for the uncertainties. If she stays, in what way? If she leaves, she doesn’t know what will happen. Like most people, the wife has no courage as well to face the new uncertainties, so she decides to stay. Then next scene happens.
They select the most primitive way to keep the relationship. No speech, no emotion, only undressing, dressing, making love in their familiar way, then a kind of safety is sensed by each other. They are desperately saving their marriage by physical touching and movement. By fleshly satisfaction, they attempt to make up for what has lost in the seeking of soul satisfaction. However, does it work? It is no doubt they will suffer more. Who is to blame? It is the lust of humankind. Lust was born with people and rooted deeply in each mind. People always have all kinds of lusts for the world we live. We never feel satisfied and intend to detain forcibly everything we desire. To get rid of every source of sin and pain, we have to abandon our lusts. Fewer lusts, then the better life.
Work Cited
On Ai's, “Why Can’t I Leave You”. Michaelpotts. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May. 2015 <http://michaelpotts.livejournal.com/8669.html>.