"Forgetfulness"

Paper Summary:

The poem "Forgetfulness" by Billy Collins suggests that life is a long, gradual process of amassing facts and then forgetting them. When the last fact is lost, so is life. The writer argues that, from this point of view, memory then serves little purpose. However, the Romantics saw memory as an opportunity for man to grow spiritually and to refine himself from carefree ignorance to wisdom and holiness. The paper examines how even post-modern writings can embrace the idea of a life preparing the dying person for a higher plane of existence.

From the Paper:

I"n "Forgetfulness", Billy Collins relates the gradual slipping away of memories to man's own inevitable "way to oblivion where [he] will join those / who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle" (Collins 29). The memories that recede prior to the culminating obliviousness of death are both trivial ("a state flower") and essential ("a love poem that you used to know by heart") (Collins 29). If, as the Romans thought, death is the ultimate relinquishing of the sum of our life experience, and Lethe the river of forgetfulness that leads to the afterlife, what then is the value of memory at all? From the viewpoint of Romantic philosophy, contemporary society is almost too much for a sensitive person to overcome in order to function physically, intellectually and spiritually."

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