Trust and Distrust

The Farewell

Edward Field

They say the ice will hold
so there I go,
forced to believe them by my act of trusting people,
stepping out on it,

and naturally it gaps open
and I, forced to carry on coolly
by my act of being imperturbable,
slide erectly into the water wearing my captain's helmet,
waving to the shore with a sad smile,
"Goodbye my darlings, goodbye dear one,"
as the ice meets again over my head with a click.

This poem is called The Farewell by Edward Field. I chose this poem because I was interested by the title. I wanted to know what The Farewell was. After reading the poem I realized that it was the farewell of a captain to his crew. But it was much more than that as well. His crew made him believe that this "ice" would hold him, that he was safe goibng out on the
"ice" alone. He trusted their judgement and ended up sinking beneath the ice never to by seen again. The captain remains calm while he is engulfed by the ice and it "meets again over [his] head with a click." Above this poem there were words in italics: todays poem is about trust and distrust. The lesson is the story is that you cannot always trust other people. Sometimes you must trust wourself above all others and whatever choice you make you must live with it.