I Am Not I Poem Response

I am not I.

I am this one

walking beside me whom I do not see,

whom at times I manage to visit,

and whom at other times I forget;

who remains calm and silent while I talk,

and forgives, gently, when I hate,

who walks where I am not,

who will remain standing when I die.

Of the five poems we read, my favourite is I Am Not I. I like this poem because I believe it can have a lot of different interpretations; most people in the class said it meant that there was another side of the person in the poem, but I interpreted it as something like a reputation. Often times, your reputation is almost something completely different from who you really are -- you don't see it, sometimes you do become that reputation, and sometimes you forget about it completely. Your reputation often precedes you or walks where you do not, and depending on your reputation, it remains standing after you die. In a sense, I feel as though the poem is saying you are not always yourself, but rather, your reputation -- because other people see you that way. They have a predetermined view of who you are because of your reputation.

Two lines of the poem leave a different impression on me: who remains calm and silent while I talk, and forgives, gently, when I hate. These lines make me think of someone who has split personalities, or something like another side of themselves in their heads. This second side has become a fully fledged person, a friend who lingers in the background and remains calm and silent. It forgives easily, even if real people do not forgive the person who has wronged them. It makes me think of the book Crank, where the main character becomes a different person with a different personality and name when she is high off of crystal meth.

My favourite line of the poem is: who will remain standing when I die. I think this is especially true for reputations and the impression you leave on the world. It's a reminder that what we do on Earth can live on long after we're gone, depending what we do. Most people die and are never remembered by those other than their family members and close friends -- others leave a legacy behind, like the late Robin Williams. It's a reminder that we have the choice to use our talents and skills for good or for evil, and that we can either succumb to whatever reputation goes before us, or become ourselves.