"Position" was written in 1964 and was one of the few poems that
jumped out at me. Position can be inspiration to all of us but I feel as though
it is more or less about the long road to find the love of your life. Carol
Berge`, the author of "Position" was born in 1928 and was divorced
after the birth of her son. Berge's poetry focuses on self-respect and people
seeking love such as in this poem. I believe the past is hard for everyone to
deal with; when past experiences are bad experiences we tend to carry along the
baggage and try to protect ourselves from making the same mistake.
Unfortunately, we close ourselves off, not allowing us to succeed and create a
good memory to overturn the bad. A fear of pain is almost more dangerous than
pain itself. The poem uses generally known vocabulary making it easy to read and
easy to understand yet it has no stress pattern. She makes use of figurative
language by utilizing metaphors, symbols, and consonance. She speaks of a mother
who "whipped the spirit out of her son", symbolizes herself as all
women, and displays consonance in the ninth line when she states
"wouldn't…couldn't…didn't". I really enjoyed the way she spoke of
a previous girl who didn't do any of the right things. It is easy to prejudge
others, to put a face value on someone we don't even know. When something
painful has happened in the past, we learn from it, take value out of the event,
and yet we never want it to happen again. When a man is beaten by his mother,
his idea of all mothers is tarnished and he is no longer willing to think well
of mothers. Berge` talks about "the girl who didn't, or wouldn't or
couldn't but didn't." Because of past experiences the idea of any girl as a
positive and fulfilling partner is no longer valid in a mind that was once
opened to the world. Berge` then reverses the situation by asking the question,
but "what chance have I got/ unless you consider/ that you stand before me
too." What about all the men that have given bad impressions or all the
fathers who have beaten their daughters? Without opening ourselves up to hurt
again, we can never open ourselves up to love again. We are so busy trying to
judge others that we never realize they are also judging us. When the past is
always haunting us and telling us not to make the same mistake again it is easy
to just give up and forget about ever opening ourselves up to love again. I
chose this poem because I enjoyed the last segment very much. "What chance
have I got/ unless you consider/ that you stand before me too." I was
having a lot of difficulty dealing with the past and never stopped to realize,
while I was so quick to pass judgment, I was not only the judge but the
defendant as well. I was so stuck on the idea that she did this and that in the
past that I didn't stop to realize that we were both in the same situation. I
also enjoyed the presence of lines four through ten, which talk about the past
leaving bad images in our minds. Everyone has had something happen in the past
where they carry over the memory and it affects them throughout their life,
anything from a broken heart to a broken home. When a heart is broken it is hard
to re-open it to anyone, the fear of another pain is just too great. Position
really puts things into perspective and can inspire anyone, no matter what
situation you get yourself into. It is important to realize that while we may be
passing judgment on others, they are also passing judgment on us. Judge each
individual as an individual not based on a past experience. Let everything teach
a lesson but do not close yourself off to others because of a few bad
experiences.