An Agony. As Now.

The separation of self from the body results in an alienation of the soul. Through fragmented lines and sentences, the poem reflects the mindset of the tortured self. Some thoughts have no subject, like the thoughts in lines 3-5, and others have no verb, as in Lines 32 and 33. The soul is unable to form a complete thought. Other thoughts are interjected in parentheticals. Some of these parentheticals themselves trail off and do not contain complete thoughts.

The separation of self from the body creates a divide between form and feeling. Erotic encounters become mechanical as the bodies “rubbed against” (Line 10) him. The “white hot metal” (Line 38) of the body’s flesh separates the soul from the outside world. The body forcibly contains the soul, but without a strong connection; as such, the body “has no feeling” (Line 41) and is “not, / given to love” (Lines 41-42). This results in the soul being left trapped screaming.

The poem focuses on three different types of oppression: of the self, of the soul, and of the other.

In the past, the speaker had rejected and “abandoned” (Line 16) his younger self. This inner conflict, which results in the denial of the past, helps contribute to his fragmentation and oppression in the present.