"Before the World Intruded" and Reaction

Before the World Intruded
Michele Rosenthal

Return me to those infant years,
before I woke from sleep,

when ideas were oceans crashing,
my dreams blank shores of sand.

Transport me fast to who I was
when breath was fresh as sight,

my new parts — unfragmented —
shielded faith from unkind light.

Draw for me a figure whole, so different
from who I am. Show me now

this picture: who I was
when I began.

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I liked this poem because I, like the author, miss the innocence of my youth. In the lines, "Return me to those infant years, before I woke from sleep," the "sleep" is a child's innocence, and awaking from that sleep is losing one's innocence. The poem also says, "when ideas were oceans crashing, my dreams blank shores of sand." This creates a great imagery of how the sand is before anyone's walked on it and made footprints. It means that when we are young, our minds just absorb all the ideas and dreams that we have, and we are able to hope for anything and we don't know that some things might never be. This poem is most likely free verse. This poem also uses metaphores to describe how "ideas were oceans crashing" and "dreams blank shores of sand." There is also a use of simile when the poet states, "when breath was fresh as sight."