Atlantis - A Lost Sonnet

This poem is structured in a way that the first four lines talk about the wonders on how a city
and the entirety of it just disappeared without a trace. The it is followed by a transition with which the
persona talks about how he misses his old city. Furthermore, the persona kept on sharing minor yet
relatable things he remembered in his old city, from the simple food to the small yet important
moments he had. After this, the persona comes to a solution on how the Atlantis relates to the people’s
sorrow.

The poem basically talks about how Atlantis is an embodiment of our sorrows. The poem
somehow tells us that what is gone is gone will never come back or be found. It tells us to not to dwell in
our sorrows because what has happened will never be undone and what was lost will never be found,
thus it is important to live in the moment, treasure everything, and make the most out of life because a
day will come when these things will turn into memories, a distant place where we are stuck watching
but can never go into. It also emphasizes that the fable-makers wasn’t able to find the word to describe
the feeling of longing, sadness and sorrow and so, they named it and drowned it, which implies that the
cause of our sorrows, like Atlantis, will never be found and just as how people have always been – trying
to bury, drown and forget one’s sorrows – we instead do what we are best at, burying and forgetting
whatever it is that we cannot find an answer to.

This is similar to our 21st century literature definition because it certainly talks about the nature
of humans as beings of this world. It challenges the ideals of the world by exposing the beauty in the
imperfections of humans. The poem hints at its end part that it was our nature to just forget things that
which we cannot answer which was likened to the fact that Atlantis, which was believed to be a lost city,
just suddenly disappeared to the depths of the water. This part of the poem emphasizes our nature to
answer the unanswerable by making it seem a make-believe, however, the poet was still able to portray
the message he wants to convey. It is as if that through the use of pointing human nature, it made us
realize that is important to live in the moment and not to mind our sorrows because life will be short.
One day, you will just realize that those you held dear are now just memories and recollections, written
and stored in our minds and hearts which, in itself won’t last long as well.