Falling (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: James Dickey
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Work: Narrative
- Genres: Poetry, Narrative poetry
- Subjects: Accidents, Death or dying, Flight, Life, philosophy of, Airplanes or jets, Air
The Poem
“Falling” is a long poem that uses the “split line”—a technique innovated by James Dickey—in a block format; its title suggests the poem’s dramatic situation, a flight attendant falling out of an airliner, as well as a metaphor for the human condition. The flight attendant’s fall from the airplane serves as an analogy for an individual’s descent through life, where every moment brings one closer to the time when one will not exist. This process is depicted as an unavoidable progression over which a person has little or no control. The question the...
[The entire page is 1571 words long]
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