At the San Francisco Airport (Yvor Winters)

Author Bio:

American poet and literary critic, Yvor Winters, attended the University of Chicago, University of Colorado, and Stanford University.  He later taught at the University of Idaho and was awarded the Bollingen Prize for Poetry in 1961 for his Collected Poems.

At the San Francisco Airport

To my daughter, 1954

BY YVOR WINTERS

This is the terminal: the light

Gives perfect vision, false and hard;

The metal glitters, deep and bright.

Great planes are waiting in the yard—

They are already in the night.

And you are here beside me, small,

Contained and fragile, and intent

On things that I but half recall—

Yet going whither you are bent.

I am the past, and that is all.

But you and I in part are one:

The frightened brain, the nervous will,

The knowledge of what must be done,

The passion to acquire the skill

To face that which you dare not shun.

The rain of matter upon sense

Destroys me momently. The score:

There comes what will come. The expense

Is what one thought, and something more—

One’s being and intelligence.

This is the terminal, the break.

Beyond this point, on lines of air,

You take the way that you must take;

And I remain in light and stare—

In light, and nothing else, awake.

Reflection:

From the title of the poem, we learn that the author is at the San Francisco Airport. When at an airport, there are only four things that can happen. You can go on a journey, return from one, welcome someone, or bid farewell. Based on the lines "you take the way you must take; And I remain in light and stare," this poem seems to convey a parent regretfully saying goodbye to their daughter. The diction of this poem is very powerful. The third word is this poem is a double entendre. "this is the terminal" describes the airport scene where the poem takes place, as well as meaning that this is the end of the daughter staying at home. This powerful word not only sets the scene for the poem, but also forces the reader to put themselves in the parent's shoes. This powerful word also serves as a dysphemism. Instead of saying, "this is goodbye," the parent uses the strong word "terminal" to convey their depressed tone of a bitter and ultimate ending. The speaker repeats this exact phrase at the beginning of the last stanza to tie the poem together and reiterate their main point. The poem itself is a contradiction. It is all about a daughter who is ready to leave the nest and be independent. However, her parent views her as “small, contained, and fragile” with a “frightened brain” and a “nervous will.”

 Throughout the poem, the speaker uses an A-B-A-B-A rhyme scheme to make the poem flow nicely and create a steady pace.