Analysis of Fable by Nina Cassian :: Cassian Fable Essays

Analysis of Fable by Nina Cassian    Whereas the extent of my poetic clench lies in a decided distaste for Dante and a zest for limericks concerning Nantucket - it behooves me to talk of a poem that my limited capacities can grasp. Fable by Nina Cassian is salutary such a poem. I view this piece as Ms. Cassians berth on life (a sentence or an obligation), death, and sadly, the fact that most plurality do not appreciate the beautific nature of existence.   I understand the initiatory stanza as a depiction of mans earthly plane as a sort of testing ground for angels - a place where creations are come to with the development of spirit, to master imbalance.   The second and third stanzas I interpret as the transformation of the ethereal spirit to a corporal state. The angel plummeted and then left spiritual debaucher in a quest for purity.   The angel,s logical argument is clearly painful ...feathers carbonized, his sole wing impotent, dangling. Though t he cost of corporeal existence is dear, I believe Ms. Cassian sees this as an obligation which must be met, a sentence.   The final sentence is the saddest. The nature of this newly formed being is mundanely categorized. The people fail to see its purpose and its intrinsic beauty by extension, they realise lost their own missions, their own true value. They have forgotten God.   The second poem was written by an astonishingly brillant N.Y.U. savant hoping to receive an A in an introductory literature course taught by a fascinating (and underpaid) professsor.   12/2/97 is the date that this designer spent approximately six minutes dead.   He had minored in worship and had developed a healthy scepticism concerning all religions. The author had laughed at so called near-death experiences - believing them either fantasy or resultant of a chemical secretion of the frontal lobe in times of catastrophic distress.   This at one time pillager of the business world, this glorified strett hustler discovered upon his demise that as the people of Fable he had lost his way, his appreciation, his God.