The poem aims at instilling a sense of gratitude in us towards everything that constitutes our environment. It underscores the point how inextricably we are linked to one another and the natural environment. To achieve peace and harmony, it’s important that we do “remember” how we owe our existence to all that constitute the environment – from our parents to plants, trees and animals; from the sky to the earth; from the sun and the moon to the wind, and, finally, to the whole universe.
The poet might be afraid that man is growing too selfish and detached from its environment. So, she comes up with this poem to remind us how man is fundamentally associated with everything around him.
The title of the poem “Remember” has been repeated sixteen times in the poem. The refrain is used every time the poet introduces a new idea. It lends the poem...
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the character of a chant or a hymn. This repetition helps in bringing home the central message of the poem - how man is related and attached to his environment.
The poem begins by reminding us about our association with the sky and the stars. Then, it tells us about the significance of the moon and the sun in our lives. It talks about the importance of the moments of sunrise and sunset. While one is the “strongest point of time” heralding a new day and filling us with newer energy and hope, the other "gives way to night," the time to take rest and fall asleep.
The poem, then, goes on to remind us of the immense pain our mothers took to give us life.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother's, and hers.
Then, it talks about fathers, without whom our lives wouldn’t have been possible. Certainly, the poet is trying to inculcate in us a sense of gratitude towards each of them.
Joy Harjo, then, exhorts us to “remember the earth whose skin you are.” Irrespective of the colors of our skins, each of us has some part of the earth in us. In this way, the earth is the mother of all of us. Then, the poet talks about plants, trees and animals; reminding us that they are all alive.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Harjo tells us that the wind that blows "knows the origin of the universe."
Consider these lines:
Remember that you are all people and that all people are you.
Remember that you are this universe and that this universe is you
Here, the poet underscores the point that we are all connected and united. The whole of universe is a single entity. Harjo's argument rubbishes the existence of differences and discordance in the world.
So, we see that the meaning of the poem is quite clear. It talks about the inseparable connection of human beings with each other and with the natural world. It urges us to remember the importance of each of them in our lives. If we're able to acknowledge this, we’d be able to establish a state of blissful harmony in this world of diversities.
"Remember," expresses the belief in Native American spirituality that all humans are interconnected. We are connected to nature, the universe, and each other. Her poem is a call to humans to remember that we are more than simply separate individuals cut off from the rest of the universe.
Her poem's speaker reminds us that we are connected to the dawn, to the sunset, to the earth, to our communities, to our parents, to the past, to plants, trees, animals, and the wind, saying:
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
The poem reiterates a theme that is common also to Hindu poetry, emphasizing connectedness. It counteracts what is sometimes understood as the extreme individualism of Western culture, in which people are alienated from one another and locked in a struggle for dominance over nature and each other. The poem implies that if we remember we are connected to all things, we will cherish them and treat them with respect.
The poem uses apostrophe by addressing the absent reader directly. It uses personification when it refers to the wind as she, as if it is a gendered human. It uses simple, everyday diction and simple grammatical structures. The repetition of the word "remember" lends emphasis to that term and creates a sense of rhythm and incantation, as if the poem is a litany.
This beautiful poem is a reminder for us to look at more than the here and now. It takes on an ethereal, spiritual quality, reminding the reader to consider the roles of the sun and moon in the circle of life. What Joy Harjo means in this poem is that there are influences all around us that need to be acknowledged, from "plants, trees [and] animal life" to the "dance language" of life.
Another meaning of this poem is that we must remember the value of family. The poem mentions that we are all the result of our mothers' lives as well as those of all our ancestors.
The implication of this poem is that by remembering the spiritual aspects of life, we can transcend the mundane struggles of everyday life and tap into the a higher state of being, in which the meaning of life is greater than these things.