W.S. Merwin – For a Coming Extinction

I personally love this poem, as it has been one of my favorite yet. I find a strong sense of poignancy in this poem, as it looks upon how selfish of a creature we humans are. I love the lines “Join your word to theirs, Tell him, That it is we who are important.” It breaks us down into nothing but animals, yet shows how we see ourselves as the only thing on this planet worth anything. We do not care what we destroy as long as we live on. The sense of death of a creature, and that creature no longer exists. The death of each person is an extinction of that person’s life, but what happens when there is no other one like that person to carry on his story? The sense of the ultimate end in this poem is what draws me to it, as each person’s death is his or her ultimate end.