The Decade Changing Realism Of A Common Man From The 50’s :: Essays Papers

The Decade Changing Realism Of A Common Man From The 50’s When all literature is written, the author or poet is influenced by the happenings of the time or era in which they live. What this does is give the reader a sense of how the author or poet perceives the time. In particular the poem entitled, â€Å"Life Cycle of Common Man† by Howard Stanley Nemerov shows a direct connection between the poem itself, and the time in which it was written. Nemerov uses his thoughts and experiences from the 50’s and 60’s to write a poem, which shows a brief overview of the life of a common man of the 50’s. The interesting thing about this particular piece is that it was written in 1960, which means that it was written when the changes of the two very different decades started to occur; furthermore, when the two very different types of thinking started to occur. The poem’s structure fits perfectly with this as well. Nemerov’s view of the 50’s is seen in the perspective view of his 60’s way of t hinking, possibly even being somewhat responsible for the change in mindset from change in decade. Howard Nemerov was a very different type of poet than the rest of the poets during the time when this piece was written. Nemerov had himself been in the war, and come back home to a new country of consumerism and routine. When the 50’s ways of anti-communism and conservative thoughts were on the outs and the more liberal/revolutionary ways of thinking and acting came around, Nemerov did not follow the path of most of writers then. Most writers of the time thought of themselves as artist making a social stand, Nemerov was not very keen on protests or big on writing about social class values. He more or less stood back and wrote from a more sarcastic, paradoxical way. Being known as a â€Å"satirist filled with compassion,† Nemerov wrote on his observations and gave his opinion of them in the tone in which he wrote each piece (Labrie 145). This is quite evident in his poetry from around this time frame especially in the piece â€Å"Life Cycle of Common Man.† â€Å"Life Cycle of Common Man† is broken up into three major parts. The first is a recap of the typical 50’s man.