What is Rodney Jones arguing in this poem?
Hubris at Zunzal
by Rodney Jones June 22, 2009
Nearly sunset, and time on the water
of 1984. Language its tracer.
No image like the image of language.
I had waded out about thigh deep.
Then a shout from the beach.
I held in my hand half a coconut shell
of coconut milk and 150-proof rum
and dumped it white into the waves
when it came on me how sweet it had been,
then the idea I was not finished,
then the act of reaching down
with the idea I would get it back
The argument here is that once you put something down, you might lose it. For example, in Jones’ case, he put down (spilled) his unfinished drink into the ocean, which carried the drink away, then he realized how great the drink was and decided he wanted it back. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get anything you spill in the ocean back and he was left with the memory of his coconut milk-rum beverage (“Language its tracer”—meaning all memories are remembered by the words you use to describe the event or object you have a memory of). The imagery of the drink allows us to understand Jones’ argument. The drink is symbolic.
The last two-lines (“then the act of reaching down/with the idea I would get it back”) is very powerful, in my opinion. Once you give something up, you can try to get it (whatever it is) back, but its unlikely you will succeed.
Very thoughtful post, I definitely agree with you that the poem's meaning is to hold on to things you love because once you put it down you may lose it forever. You may want to branch your ideas out from just dropping the coconut rum into the ocean like in the poem, which you partially do by saying that it's symbolic. I would recommend that you expand upon the idea that the drink is symbolic.
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