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Men That Don't Fit In (1911)

poetryfoundation.org

11–20 of 42 posts

Re: Men That Don't Fit In (1911)

#12

This is me. Has anyone broken this curse before it's too late?

Start a meetup for one of your own passions. Then you’re not the one that has to fit in. My passion is retro shmup, beat’em up, and run n’ gun games — basically designed either directly for the arcade or with that style in mind for modern games. I live in a small city but I noticed a steady stream of these kinds of games coming into the hock shop where I scooped them up for my collection. Figured there must be at lea…

For me specifically this hurts:

If they just went straight they might go far; They are strong and brave and true; But they're always tired of the things that are, And they want the strange and new. They say: "Could I find my proper groove, What a deep mark I would make!" So they chop and change, and each fresh move Is only a fresh mistake.

Re: Men That Don't Fit In (1911)

#13

This is me. Has anyone broken this curse before it's too late?

Is it really a curse? This poem takes as axiomatic the ideas that life is a race, that winning matters, that winning involves a specific destination, and that this destination is more or less the same for everyone: but none of those premises strike me as being particularly defensible. What we are seeing in this poem is not the rambling man as he experiences his own life, but as he is seen through the eyes of a person…

This is the part that's a curse. And yes it's a curse because you never build anything because you don't know what that even feels like.

If they just went straight they might go far; They are strong and brave and true; But they're always tired of the things that are, And they want the strange and new. They say: "Could I find my proper groove, What a deep mark I would make!" So they chop and change, and each fresh move Is only a fresh mistake.

Re: Men That Don't Fit In (1911)

#16
I'd be curious to know the average salary in 1911 versus cost to purchase a house in 1911. If you can plod along for 15 years and buy a house with cash (i don't think credit/mortgages existed in 1911?). Makes plodding seems like the right choice.

Re: Men That Don't Fit In (1911)

#17
post #2

Copied from: THE SPELL OF THE YUKON AND OTHER VERSES by Robert Service https://www.gutenberg.org/files/207/207-h/207-h.htm

I studied "The Cremation of Sam McGee" in elementary school and it was a favourite of my grandmother. It's well-known in Canada, as far as poetry goes, though the poem most Canadians know by heart (at least partially) is "In Flanders Fields", which is recited solemnly on Remembrance Day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields

Re: Men That Don't Fit In (1911)

#18
What a bunch of crap.

If you spend your life running to and fro and never commit to anything in the end, then arguably you've frittered your life away.

But maybe, just maybe, what you've really been doing this whole time is building up a wealth of diverse experiences, which in turn give you a broad understanding of the world and the ability to bring a unique and wonderful perspective to life. One that is completely your own, and special and important and infinitely valuable precisely because of the long period of exploration that you committed your early life to.

I recommend this book endlessly. Anybody who reads this stupid poem and gets a sinking feeling in their chest should pick up a copy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range:_Why_Generalists_Triumph...

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