"Even if the plane lands you safely, why should you not return to your home in flames or ruins, your wife absconded, the children blind and dying in their cots?"
Patterson uses very emotive and powerful imagery to try to prove a point that our small lives are irrelevant in the eyes of the world. He then summarises this stanza by saying,
"Only the lover walks upon the earth, careless of what fate prepares for him".
This quote suggests that the lover is immune to the day-to-day harshness of the world. His word choice also effectively displays ides of immortality. It tells us that love can protect you from the perils of the world.
In the second stanza, Patterson introduces the main incident in the poem. A car knocks down the subject.
"So you step out at the lights, almost as if today you know you are the special one. The women in the windshield lifting away her frozen cry."
This metaphor is very effective as it has clear connotations of time standing still and fear. Patterson is now writing on a personal basis, as before he spoke generally.
He continues his biblical references when he says, "A white mask on a stick". This imagery describes Atropos, the Greek god of death (somewhat like Grim Reaper) When the time has come, they come to take to take you away. He continues the theme of the underworld by saying,
“The sun leaves like a rocket; the sky goes out."
Patterson's effective imagery has apocalyptic connotations. This simile compares the flash of a rocket to the brightness of the sun. It also suggests that everything happens quickly, as rockets are very fast.
He further explores this idea when he says,
“The road floods and widens: on a distant kerb, the lost souls groan like sad trombones."
This phrase refers to the river Styx the river of lost souls in hell. It also has internal rhyming (groans, trombones). It is a very smooth transitions but all his description has bad connotations, such as “lost souls” which has connotations of death. By now, the subject has entered the afterlife and is in hell.
In the final stanza, Patterson breaks all the rules by saying that the dead can be brought back into the living world. He describes a woman in the living world,
“Somewhere in the other world she fills your name full of her breath again."
This metaphor is the climax of the poem. It could mean that in the living world a women only says the subjects name and he is brought back to life again. It effectively symbolises mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This
“You float to your feet: the dark rose on your shirt folds itself away".
Patterson uses the dark rose as a metaphor describing the blood on the shirt. I could also be a heart. This has connotations of love.
“And you slip back into the crowd, who being merely mortal must remember none of this incident.”
This quote underlines human naivety by using effective word choice. It tells us that the subject just reappears and nobody notices. Patterson finishes by saying
“Just one flea ridden dog chained to the railing, who might be Cerberus or patent Argos, looks on knowing the great law you have flouted.”
This tells us that animals who we consider being inferior to us know that we have beaten the system.
Cerberus and Argos are names of classic Greek gods, both three headed dogs who guarded the gates of Hades; the Greek underworld.
In conclusion, Patterson has told us of a man brought back to life through love.
The theme he tries to portray I that love is the most powerful force in the world and it is strong enough to break any laws.
