Three Varieties of Bathtubs :: Jeffrey Harrison Literature Essays

Three Varieties of Bathtubs Past, pose and future day ar the simplest ways in which humans perceive time. We recognize the past times through our memories and our recall of events that already piddle happened. When looking into the future, we can lonesome(prenominal) look at where we argon now in order to chance what our fate might be in the future. Or else we only have our dreams and goals that we look forward to one- day accomplishing. When viewing the present, however, everything around us is not an idea or memory in our head, but a humanity that we use our senses to see, feel, touch, smell or hear. We are using our bodys functions to live and load down in what is around us at the moment. When living in the present (as one would say to someone who is constantly aware of the moment and what is around them), there is less chance to miss whats in front of us rather than always looking behind or too outlying(prenominal) ahead. Jeffrey Harrison, in his poesy Bathtubs, Three Varieties, seems to feel the same way virtually living in the here and the now. The trine varieties of bathtubs Harrison writes about were separated into three stanzas according to their design and their purpose now, in the present. In the first stanza of the poem Harrison describes an old- fashioned bathtub, one that was raised off the floor by porcelain wildcat paws that extended off each corner. The particular bathtubs that he was describing were no semipermanent serving their intended purpose, but rather were external in a yard handle an old car that was once ones hotrod, now molecule metal. These bathtubs, retired from their original purpose, now just sat through the seasons and let outside forces such as the weather and changes in other living things like the walnut tree carry on without regard to their presence. In the exposition of these bathtubs, Harrison shows something that although is still here, is part of the past and really does not have a life of its own a nymore except just lying underneath the walnut tree. This is very much like a person whose thoughts are caught up in the past, because they, too, are still trying to live something that is over and then lose purpose in the present. Harrison also relates these bathtubs twice to sheep, which are commonly viewed as animals that follow each other, never really having a choice or idea of their own.