Commentary of 'Fly' I wrote this poem after thinking about the nature of humans in our society. We touched on this subject in class, and I found the idea, though seemingly hackneyed, to be very interesting. It is, simply, the fact that people do not show their true selves to others. They prison their inner selves from the eyes of society, and put on a false demeanor to the world. Everyone wants to be accepted, and we sometimes feel that if we reveal our true selves, people won't like it. They'll choose not to be with us, and won't become our friends. It is the human condition to yearn for acceptance and belonging, but to cover up our true character, and pretend to be someone else, is not right. Some people believe that if they act how others want them to, then they will have true friends, and therefore be happy. In reality, this does not work. In order to experience genuine happiness, we must take off our masks and express our own true nature. When we can comfortably accept the person we are inside, we can let ourselves out of our cages, and be free to experience ourselves. The girl in the poem is depicted as a sleeping soul, hidden in the depths of night. She represents us humans when we conceal our true nature, and exist solely as an artificial and hollow being. It is like we are living in darkness; we are not enlightened with the truth about ourselves. We do not realize the significance of the person we are inside. The girl in the poem is sleeping, and this is representative of how, when we are acting as someone else, we are letting our real life pass us by. We become so consumed with being someone "acceptable", that we ignore our true selves. By dismissing who we are inside, it is like trapping ourselves inside a cage, or a cocoon. We are always struggling to keep the cocoon shut so that no one can see who we really are, but how can we experience genuine happiness when we are continually straining to keep up a front? We cannot. We need to free ourselves from this negative way of life. When we hold ourselves captive, we cannot experience true joy. We are containing and denying our real identity. We need to liberate ourselves from this oppressive cocoon. In the poem, the girl eventually sees the light of morning and realizes that it is time to break free. We, as well, are imprisoned, but like the girl, we will reach a time in our life when we are tired of forcing the cocoon closed. So, we'll
let it open.
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