Finding Emphasis in "Slowly" by Donna Masini

              After reading the poem “Slowly” by Donna Masini, it bothered me greatly and caused me to be confused, having so many questions running through my head. One of the main concerns that I had with this poem, was the imagery the poet uses about a snake devouring a rabbit. How is this poetic in any way and what does it mean? These were the first couple questions I had.

               I started taking the poem piece by piece in trying to discover the meaning behind the nasty experience she had. The beginning describes what she saw taking place at the zoo in fourth grade and then Masini mentions the student’s reactions including hers. “All the girls, groaning, shrieking but weren’t we amazed, fascinated, saying we couldn’t look, but looking, weren’t we held there, weren’t we imagining-what were we imagining?” This of course brings in the question, what were they really imagining?

 Maybe she wonders why she watched the way she did when the others girl were disgusted. Her teacher tells the girls to move on, but the poet describes how she could not move and it was like “watching a fern unfurl, a minute hand move across a clock”. It was as if she was stuck in time just staring at this snake indulging a rabbit.

               Towards the end really told me that the scenario with the snake was maybe symbolism for something that took place in Masini’s life after her visit at the zoo or that it symbolizes her feelings of a precious life. She makes a significant remark about how the snake was still sucking the rabbit down “just so I am taking this in, slowly, taking it into my body: this grief.” This made me feel uncomfortable at first and a little confused as she tells of taking it into her body.

 I did a little research on my own to help understand more by looking up the definition of grief. Grief is keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret.

               She then goes on with saying, “How slow the body is to realize. You are never coming back.” So from what I can understand is that it has taken her a long time of pain and sorrow to get through with whatever happened in her life after that day or that she is thinking of life altogether and how quickly it can vanish. Ultimately, the main question of this poem is hinted at the very end and that is, who is “you”?

               After looking over the poem several times and thinking about all of my initial questions, I think the writer is describing how fast life can come and go or how death can happen to anyone at any time. When she says that “you are never coming back”, it can lead to how once something or someone dies, they don’t get the chance to come back.

Another aspect I concluded from this poem was that maybe the poet had a tragic experience where she lost a loved one and the “you” that she refers to at the end is the one who died and the imagery of the snake and rabbit could exhibit how slow and painful it is to lose someone close to you. The grief you would have, the sadness and pain, slowly taking over your body and remaining there for the longest time.

               I know this feeling that Masini is describing along with many others, and how the process of accepting reality and the death of someone, is in fact painfully and extremely slow.

               However, I still have remaining questions about this poem, like who the “you” is and what exactly does she feel grief over? But after examining it by pieces and looking up definitions, it was easier to understand and helped me in trying to answer some of my questions.