‘A man I am is a poem of transformation and redemption’. Discuss this quote with close reference to the poem. A man I am was written by Stevie Smith, and like most of Stevie’s poems is unstructured and has individual verses which in this poems manner of subject may explore the transformation and it’s progression from wolf to an actual man. The transformation in this poem is about how in order for a man to actually evolve into a man (through evolution) then he must accept God’s will, which this poem explores.
A man I am begins with ‘I was consumed by so much hate I did not feel that I could wait. ’ Already, this poem starts off with a single minded, primitive and pessimistic view and goes on to sound uncontrollable; for humanities sake and almost animalistic. The narrator goes on to describe themselves as ‘wild’, untamed, and therefore on a completely different level to the traits of a human being. ‘I seized a little new born child I tore his throat, I licked my fang, just like a wolf. A wolf I am.
’ This ends the first stanza and contrasts the purity of innocence with an animalistic feature of a wolf, a killer with no guilt, and so the narrator represents themselves as a predator with no remorse and at such a position where hope would seem inevitable, and a cause of transformation would seem almost impossible. Moreover, it is redemption that purifies this uncontrollable being with transformation that this being has through the cause of religion, but it is first depicted in the second stanza with the reference of weather change.
In the partial beginning of the second stanza is ‘Sometimes I thought my heart would freeze, And never know a moment’s ease; But presently the spring broke in. ’ So as the hopelessness continues there is sudden faith which is represented with spring and thus rebirth and joy. And so the transformation begins. ‘My poor heart bled like anything. The drops fell down, I knew remorse’ and so his humanity awakens, his redemption, his triumph to redeem himself and his transition begins, for his conscience is alive.
‘And falling ill, I soon grew worse. Until atlast I cried on Him. ’ This is the first introduction in the poem, to God, and it shows the narrator’s acceptance and mercy to God’s will which is how his transformation is certified, and therefore he redeems himself. The last stanza is short, with only three lines but drastically shows how the transformation occurs with the event of an afterlife. ‘Upon the silt of death I swam And as I wept my joy began. Just like a man. A man I am.
’ And so the narrator’s fate is with God, and has been welcomed to the afterlife and his happier that way. His redemption and transformation was completed with his fate and his destiny by God, but now he prospers as ‘A man’ in oppose to a voracious ‘Wolf’. This poem is a metaphor for humanity, and shows how religion is the destiny for that humanity. The redemption and the transformation from all sin is possible with opening your eyes and giving yourself to God’s will.
The transformation is a beautiful and happy thing, he has finally recognized salvation, it begins in Spring when all things grow and rebirth themselves, and thus redeem themselves, in oppose to winter which is how the narrator’s inhuman side ends, by ‘freeze’. And so this poem ends with a man who has awaken himself by giving himself to God and so his fate is in the hands of death because of his welcoming to the ‘afterlife’ but because of his transformation he now feels remorse, and his happier this way.
