Analysis of Fable by Nina Cassian :: Cassian Fable Essays

Analysis of Fable by Nina Cassian    Whereas the extent of my poetic appreciation lies in a decided distaste for Dante and a craving for limericks concerning Nantucket - it behooves me to discuss a poem that my limited capacities can grasp. Fable by Nina Cassian is just such a poem. I view this piece as Ms. Cassians place on life (a sentence or an obligation), death, and sadly, the fact that most people do not appreciate the beautific nature of existence.   I understand the first stanza as a depiction of mans earthly plane as a sort of testing ground for angels - a place where beings are concerned with the development of spirit, to professional person imbalance.   The second and third stanzas I interpret as the transformation of the ethereal spirit to a corporeal state. The angel plummeted and thus left spiritual sweetheart in a quest for purity.   The angel,s descent is clearly painful ...feathers carbonized, his sole wing impotent, dangling. Though the cos t 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 solve and its intrinsic beauty by extension, they have lost their own missions, their own true value. They have forgotten God.   The second poem was written by an amazingly brillant N.Y.U. student 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 former spent approximately six minutes dead.   He had minored in theology 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 erstwhile pillager of the melody world, this glorified stret t hustler discovered upon his demise that as the people of Fable he had lost his way, his appreciation, his God.