I Felt My Life with Both My Hands
poem 351
I Felt My Life with Both My Hands - meaning Summary
Self Examined for Existence
The speaker physically tests their own existence, feeling and holding their life and spirit as if inspecting an object to confirm reality. Repeated gestures and questions reflect acute doubt and a search for identity or an "Owner's name." Small domestic details and attempts at self-assurance yield only tentative conviction. The poem closes with a resigned, hopeful acceptance that one might learn to prefer a new existence or "Heaven" as well as the familiar "Old Home."
Read Complete AnalysesI felt my life with both my hands To see if it was there I held my spirit to the Glass, To prove it possibler I turned my Being round and round And paused at every pound To ask the Owner’s name For doubt, that I should know the Sound I judged my features jarred my hair I pushed my dimples by, and waited If they twinkled back Conviction might, of me I told myself, Take Courage, Friend That was a former time But we might learn to like the Heaven, As well as our Old Home!
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