The Farewell Analysis

The Farewell by Edward Field

Analysis

They say the ice will hold

so there I go,

forced to believe them by my act of trusting people,

stepping out on it, 

and naturally it gaps open

and I, forced to carry on coolly

by my act of being imperturbable,

slide erectly into the water wearing my captain's helmet,

waving to the shore with a sad smile,

"Goodbye my darlings, goodbye dear one,"

as the ice meets again over my head with a click.

The poem “The Farewell”, by Edward Field presents an issue the speaker has with trusting people too easily. He explains that you could place all your trust in someone, and in return get nothing back. But at the same time, he emphasizes that to gain trust, you have give back trust in return. 

The symbol for trust in this poem would be the ice. Ice is very fragile, and can be broken easily just like trust. The act of “stepping out on it, and naturally it gaps open” demonstrates the idea that trust can be easily broken. As the narrator continues to walk on the ice even though it is cracked, he is showing the extent to which he always trusted people, no matter what, even if the trust was cracking just like the ice. 

The free verse used in the poem allows the story to flow, and become more realistic than poetical. Diction in this poem presents words that might have detached connotations. For example, "coolly," "erectly," and "sad." "Coolly" could cause a reader to think someone is acting cold, or standoffish to another person. "Erectly" presents the idea of an angry person standing up stiffly. "Sad" has an obvious connotation.

            The quote, “my act of” suggest that the narrator may feel punished by his trait of constant trust in others.  This trait may be considered a flaw because he is trusting an instinct that he does not so much appreciate. The entire poem most likely represents a metaphor, showing the symbolic idea of “walking on ice”. The speaker is willing to trust someone even if he knows the trust may not be there. Throughout the poem, the author is using imagery to present the frightening and stressful situation he was faced with.  The easily visible images were a person walking out onto the ice, only for the ice to break, causing the speaker to fall into the water below. As the ice cracks, and the speaker falls in, he has a "sad smile" on. Most likely, he or she wasn't sad that he or she was about to die, but is sad about the betrayal of the friend. 

The first time I read this poem, I was amused by the attention it draws from you in the very first read. The last 3 lines of the poem are most striking to me, in that he is completely shutting himself out from the world. He can no longer place trust anyone, because anything he trust he has put out is unworthy. “They say the ice will hold”, suggests that the speaker believed his friends who said the ice will hold. “They” are then the result of his slip into the ice water. I really enjoy this poem, and feel that it is well-written. The author is successful in evoking emotions from the reader, and causing the reader to think about how much trust we place in others. I can take from this poem that sometimes things happen to us without warning, and they may just cause everything to fall apart.