Finding Is the First Act

Finding Is the First Act - meaning Summary

Desire and Inevitable Failure

The poem sketches a brief sequence of discovery and dissolution. It frames searching as a series of acts: an initial finding, a swift loss, then a quest likened to the pursuit of the Golden Fleece. Success progressively evaporates—no discovery, no crew, no prize—leaving only a failed expedition and the shame of Jason. The tone is laconic and ironic, compressing a full heroic narrative into stark stages to suggest how desire and mythic enterprise can collapse into emptiness and disgrace.