The Day Zimmer Lost Religion (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Paul Zimmer
- First Published: 1976
- Type of Work: Meditation
- Genres: Poetry, Meditation
- Subjects: Children, Religion, Yards or backyards, God, Catholics or Catholic Church, Jesus Christ, Church or churches, Mass, Catholic
The Poem
“The Day Zimmer Lost Religion” is composed of three seven-line stanzas of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter). The poem’s tone is strongly colloquial as the adult speaker, or persona, recounts the events of a particular day in his childhood when he tested God by missing Mass “on purpose.” The phrase “on purpose” focuses the poem on the idea of the test. The child Zimmer assumes that God will punish such behavior immediately, and when no such thing happens, the child concludes that God has evidently recognized that Zimmer is too mature to be...
[The entire page is 1440 words long]
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