Leap, Bryan Doyle Essay

Before the Leap In 2002, Brian Doyle, an editor program for the Portland Magazine, wrote the critically acclaimed meter, Leap, in remembrance of the victims September 11th, 2001. Brian has also authored ten major books including The Grail, The Wet Engine, and the novel, mink coat River. Doyle has written numerous essays and poems since 1999 including Credo, Saints Passionate & Peculiar, and Two Voices. Additionally, Doyles books have been closingists four times for the coveted surgery Book Award and his essays have been featured in publications like The American Scholar, Harpers, and The Atlantic Monthly.Upon reading the backup of the poem, Leap, by hailed author, Brian Doyle, and considering the title of the section in the text book, Faith and Doubt, I was idea the poem would, more or less, concern taking the proverbial leap of faith. I was wrong. The poem revolves around the actual physical action of one leaping pop into the air, more specifically, those jumpers who conscious ly make the incredible decision to leap from the blazing conditions in the Twin Towers to their deaths on September 11th, 2001.Doyle used a fair amount of imagery to add an incredible level of depth and to provide readers with a terrifying mental picture of that horrific day in America. Consider one of the opening lines describing the sight, Many muckle Jumped. Perhaps hundreds. No one knows. They struck the pavement with such force that there was a tapdance mist in the air. (1168). Doyle effectively implemented figurative language throughout the poem to provide the secure effect of being a shell-shocked, stunned bystander at the sight of 9/11.Additionally, Doyle told of A kindergarten boy who aphorism people precipitateing in flames told his teacher that the birds were on fire. (1168). This use of imagery made me feel as though I was there. I swear the author used the duet in the poem to epitomise the strength of military personnel resolve. As readers, we atomic number 18 unclear as to who they were, where they came from, or whether they even knew each early(a) before they grasped each others glide bys as they leaped to their deaths farthest below, to escape the intense heat, cyanogenic gases, and engulfing flames.Doyle also made reference to different onlookers witnessing the couple as they leaped together, hand in hand. This was symbolic of the intense, far reaching, familiar pain shared by so many around the world as they watched the towers fall to rubble. Doyle also mentioned the couples hands quite a few times throughout the poem. I believe he intended the couples hands to be symbolic of the strength of the human bond, as well as, the courage that we gain, as humans, through our bonds. But he reached for her hand and she reached for his hand and they leaped out the window holding hands. (1169). The author successfully makes use of the first person point of view to designate himself right there, as a witness of the tragic event, along wi th the others mentioned in the poem. Again, while he is in the first person, Doyle focuses on the clinched hands. He recalls, but I kept coming back to his hand and her hand nestled in each other with such extraordinary ordinary succinct ancient naked stunning perfect simple ferocious love. (1169).However, he too is unsure who the couple unfeignedly is but he is intrigued by their hands, their bond, their strength, their agreement, and their courage to do, together, what has to be done. He mentions that, Their hands reaching and joining are the most fibrous prayer I can imagine. (1169). At the end of the poem, Doyle writes, Jennifer Brickhouse byword them holding hands, and Stuart DeHann saw them holding hands, and I hold onto that. (1169). The author feels a sense of peace in knowing that the couple was witnessed by others. Their moment in time, their raw emotion, their true human characteristics took over and they leaped, together.Doyle makes use of a powerful simile towards the end of the poem that compares humankind finding and accessing their inner commodiousness to, seeds that open only chthonian great fires. (1169). He continues to describe our lives as they almost instantly decay into an unknown state, our most powerful, unbidden human traits surface and are focused with an extreme intensity, enabling us to overcome our fears and do what is required. Doyle writes, to believe that some unimagin suitable essence of who we are persists past the dissolution of what we were, to believe against such evil hourly evidence that love is why we are here. (1169).As a reader, my emotion compels me to believe the couple, possibly naught more than strangers, at the brink of their inevitable dissolution, experienced the miracle of love, compassion, and bravery that are all intertwined throughout the complexness of our human nature. I think that the author used the simile, like seeds that open only under great fires, to describe the epic effect that our huma n spirit is able achieve in even the strap possible scenarios. After reading the through the entire poem more than a few times, I realize that the title, Leap, truly is about realizing the power of the bonds we share as human beings.Even as our lives, in a complete state of disarray and chaos, are forced to come to an end, we are able to harness the miraculous strength of our bonds, and focus it in a way that allows us to achieve a sense of peace during our final moments. I believe the author intended for his readers to hope that the couple, in their final moments before they leaped into the smoking canyon, were able to experience this miracle and find that peace before they took the leap, together, into the unknown.