Word Choice in "Driving To Town Late To Mail A Letter"
This poem written is a short stanza divided in five lines and treats about someone who is enjoying a mail delivery in a lonely winter night, which represents that people in general waste a lot of time in their dairy life because there are experiences that are unique, and they feel like it is necessary to live them. It is very important to enjoy little things, that is the composition´s hidden message; in the poem, the narrator is enjoying is not giving importance to anything else but the place itself, paying attention to every detail surrounding the lonely town.
The author Robert Bly was born on December 23, 1926, in Madison, Minnesota. He attended Harvard University and received his M. A. from the University of Iowa in 1956. As a poet, editor, and translator, Bly has had a profound impact on the shape of American poetry. He is known for writing Iron John: A Book About Men which is credited for starting the Mythopoetic men's movement which explores the decline of the father's role in the modern family. He is a strong anti-war activist and co-founded American Writers Against the Vietnam War.
The first three lines treat about the lonely and cold town while fourth and fifth treat about the narrator’s impressions and how he feels. The narrator points out that it is a “cold and snowy night” to show the emptiness of an active world and how it feels to be alone; this feeling is also reflected in the sentence “the only things moving are swirls of snow”, where the narrator is trying to be redundant by describing the no activity around him. When he touches the “cold iron”, he also adds a little dramatic situation and shows his thoughts and the perceptions of the environment. The term “wasting time” is very important in the poem and gives it so much meaning because it proposes using the privacy of his internal world and enjoy the lonely winter beauty. In addition, words like “cold”, “snowy” and “privacy” have a negative connotation, and in the fourth line “There is a privacy I love in this snowy night” the narrator repeats that the town is empty, but he likes it and does not want to leave.
Lastly, "Driving around, I will waste more time" restates the previous perceptions and states that watching the snow fall on the street is an unforgettable experience. But the narrator also uses irony on this line because he does not think that he is wasting time because he is having a good time while enjoying the beauty of the cold and white winter.
In conclusion, “Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter” is a short but a very meaningful composition as the reader needs to open each sentence and explore what they are hiding on their words. Everyone on this world should be able to appreciate the spirit of the nature and give importance to little things and details that make this life worthwhile, without caring about what others think.
