Dusk & Dawn
Illustrated by Lauriane Carignan
Dusk (Top to Bottom)
Living is meaningless
You should never think that
Life is a beautiful gift
Discard such deception as atrocity
Future defined by your past alone
An influence to keep within
Growth is worth having and fighting for
An idea for the naive
Dreams are unreachable expectations
Accept and never feel defeat
To show comprehensive appreciation
Is a privilege of no use
Inner regret held cautiously
A thought of the tenacious
Owning every second this life gives
will only dishearten you
Fearing your fears
These are the absolute approaches to life
Give up on your dreams
And never
Accept yourself
Dawn (Bottom to Top)
Comments
auyansa
August 31, 2020I find the intricacy of this piece is very interesting. At first, I was intrigued at the fact that dusk was at the top. After all, dusk is when the sun sets which symbolizes the end of the day. However, once I read the poems from top to bottom and from bottom to top, it started to make more and more sense. As an anxious person myself, I tend to see the past and fear the future. Living that way has only brought me more fear as well as regrets. I’ve learned that I have to change the way I look at life to feel better and stronger about myself and the things surrounding me. The text demonstrates that everything can have a different meaning once one changes his point of view. Once the text is read from the bottom to the top, from dawn to dusk, all of it flows a lot better. That is definitely a very important lesson to learn in life.
Alexia Maldonado-Juarez
August 31, 2020The structure of this poem is incredibly interesting to me. To me it seemed the author, by making the Dusk version of the text the first one that the audience reads, wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to look at life from a more pessimistic point of view. How simple and common it is to trickle into a downhill spiral that ends up hurting our mental health. The fact that Dawn must be read from the down up, which takes more effort, could show that it’s more difficult to look at life in positive light. How harder it is to pull ourselves out of the hole we fell in. The verse “Give up on your dreams, And never, Accept yourself” and its counterpart “Accept yourself, And never, Give up on your dreams” fit this theory perfectly because having a sour outlook on life usually means we don’t have a good perspective of oneself and the first step towards recovery is to start by accepting oneself.
I could be reading too much into it but it really is a lovely poem. I really loved it.
Roxanne Nadeau
September 1, 2020I was very stunned when I read the first line to the poem. It honestly kept me intrigued to read the rest of the piece. I appreciate the way the poem was concieved to keep us interested, for example, the fact that we had to start from the top and then re-read from the bottom up. It gave us 2 different views to the poem. I feel like the “dusk” side of the poem shows a point of view of a miserable person who sees no good aspect to life. His life has been a collective series of deceitful events. This person has never been able to see the world through a happy lens. They have never had the chance to experience the good parts of life. On the contrary to the “dawn” side of the poem that demonstrates a hopeful and cheerful person. This person is able to take the bad of things and turn them good. They are able to create positivity when it seems that there is none. They are the ones who keep the other side from going off the rails.
This was a lovely poem that shows the reality of the different perspectives of life. It depicts both point of views perfectly. I quite enjoyed reading it.
Yasaman Ahmadova
September 1, 2020First of all, to be honest, I read this article because of its interesting title, which reminded me of a song. However, after reading the entire poem, I realized that it is not as simple as the title makes it appear. What I liked about this piece, besides the creative structure, is the hidden connection between the title and the poem itself. It is very impressive the way the author tries to show two different perspectives on life, pessimistic and optimistic, with a simple reverse reading. Furthermore, when I look at the hidden meaning of dusk, which in this case indicates the negativity and the darkness, it is associated with the pessimistic view of life. Whereas, dawn means light and positivity, which connects it to the optimistic perspective of life. As an optimist, I’m glad that the contrast of these two beliefs will leave only positive impressions on the other readers.
Justin Côté
September 1, 2020I really enjoyed reading this poem considering its uniqueness. It made me realize how the order of our words matter. When I finished reading said poem for the first time in its chronological order, I would have never thought that it was going to be so opposite once read starting from the bottom mostly since they are the exact same words. It illustrates that on a same subject, there can be different perspectives. In this context, it’s like if we ask two different persons there perspective on life. The author represent the “dawn” by the perspective of someone who is positive in life and who love and enjoy to live. However, the “dusk” represents the perspective of someone who is negative, unhappy and who is only seeing the bad things that happen. Therefore, I think that this piece transmits the message to turn the bad things into good one and to see live in a positive way.
Ingrid
September 1, 2020At first my eyes averted from the title at the poem’s head, oblivious to its significance to the text. As I read the body from top to bottom, the despair in the voice of the passage in contrast with the celestial illustration to its left evoked an expression of beauty within the raw disheartedness of the script; a seraphic quality in the acceptance of the text’s cynicism. The compliance to lifelong hopelessness and grief met with its paired image offered myself a comprehension of freedom within the verse’s despair. One may understand an acceptance of defeat as a liberation from the trial & tribulations necessary to achieve their greatest potential, or to touch their highest self. It is far more simple to embrace the ease in capitulation to pessimism than to labour & pave your road to prosperity. All to say, “Dusk” depicts the ease in accepting failure in comparison to work towards personal success. The quote, “accept and never feel defeat,” portrays the inward liberation of giving into atrophy. In contrast, “Dawn” ascends from bottom to top, being built off of words inducing hope & perseverance, rising to its highest position. The physical structure of the poem illustrates the foundation of success: faith and acceptance of self being the bed of all things that lead to greatness.
Crystal T
September 2, 2020When I first read this poem, I was wondering why is it so pessimist, “Living is meaningless, you should never think that life is a beautiful gift”. It shows that the mind is so narrowed when someone is in the dark and that it is easier to give up on everything since it requires less effort. In the end, when I re-read it from the bottom to top, it gives me a new angle, because the concept of the poem was what made it interesting, since I see it as a metaphor, describing someone’s perspective in life can change in time. When things are rough, it is easier to fall down, like dust. However, when the rough time has passed, it is like the dawn, new hopes, and paths get easier to see and follow. Therefore, since I see this poem as progress/growth of someone’s point of view, reading it for a second time is a choice, which I think if you want a clear path and a colorful life, you need to make choices, in order to have distinct sides on life.
Alexa Amato
September 2, 2020This poem really captured my attention by its structure and format; it really intrigued me how it is to be read from both top to bottom, and bottom to top. This excerpt struck me as it holds extremely powerful words, and I believe it also sums up the message of the poem as a whole; this poem explores ideas of fear, ambitions, growth, past, and future, basically overall aspects of being alive and living life. These aspects then may be viewed from either a very negative, depressed and dark state of mind, or from a positive, uplifting and optimistic viewpoint. This excerpt depicts how the quality of your thought truly do make such a drastic difference on how you view the world and your existence. I was also intrigued how the negative side of the poem is labeled “Dusk” - nightfall, when the day becomes progressively darker - and how the optimistic side of the poem is labelled “Dawn” - when the sun comes up and light shines through. Overall, symbolizing light versus darkness.
Alexa Amato
September 2, 2020“Living is meaningless
You should never think that
Life is a beautiful gift”
This poem really captured my attention by its structure and format; it really intrigued me how it is to be read from both top to bottom, and bottom to top. This excerpt struck me as it holds extremely powerful words, and I believe it also sums up the message of the poem as a whole; this poem explores ideas of fear, ambitions, growth, past, and future, basically overall aspects of being alive and living life. These aspects then may be viewed from either a very negative, depressed and dark state of mind, or from a positive, uplifting and optimistic viewpoint. This excerpt depicts how the quality of your thought truly do make such a drastic difference on how you view the world and your existence. I was also intrigued how the negative side of the poem is labeled “Dusk” - nightfall, when the day becomes progressively darker - and how the optimistic side of the poem is labelled “Dawn” - when the sun comes up and light shines through. Overall, symbolizing light versus darkness.
Cass H-B
January 23, 2022This is a beautiful poem. The structure is very interesting to me. Having it so negative at first, but when it is read backward, a whole new and positive perspective is revealed. In a way, it is like having two poems in one. Your understanding of it and your ability to derive meaning from it depends on how you read it. Additionally, I like how this poem is titled dusk if read from top to bottom, and dawn if read from bottom to top. As you read the poem to the bottom, it’s as if your negative thoughts sink with the sunset. Reading it backwards, you read upwards as if positive thoughts are rising with the rising sun. The poem has the potential to teach me and others that there are often multiple perspectives on life. We just need to see it from a different angle.
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