Response to "Choice"

Assignment:

Find a poem in English.

Identify the moment of change (is this an emotional change? a new intellectual understanding?)

Then the hard part: how did the poet create this change?

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"Choice" by Sudeep Sen: The Poetry Foundation
For the poem “Choice,” the last line, “choosing is a choice unavailable to me” is the moment of change. It brings a new intellectual understanding. The title of the poem is “Choice.” Audience are reading the poem with speculating on what choice of the poet’s mouth refers to. In the first stanza, Sen points out some things that beyond her choosing, like her grandmother’s cancer, her uncle’s mysterious disappearance, old friend’s estrangement, and the abortion of her children. Readers may think Sen tries to express her helpless about controlling things, or averting bitter experience. It is, but it is not just that. In the second stanza, Sen compares herself to a buddha who is using his fake smile to hide pain and painlessness. Sen says, “some things I once believed in/ are beyond my choosing.” She once believed in she has nirvana but now she realizes it is “someone else’s.” Because she has no choice to choose. “Choosing is a choice unavailable to me.” Therefore, we do not know the “choice” refers to “choosing” until the last line. It is a moment of intellectual change on understanding.