“To Keep One’s Treasure Protected” Poem by Dobyns Essay

The ability to battle harder so that the light in life does not go out and makes one a stronger person overall is given through silence. This may be golden or terrible if someone needs to hide their treasure from the world. Everyone experiences the need to be protected since they do not want to appear weak and allow some people to prey on their well-being. Whether the relationship is one of friendship, family, or even a love link, every relationship is important and valuable to someone. Relationships may mean the world to some people and sometimes even rescues them from a life of darkness. Some people may not have the opportunity to create meaningful connections, so they find themselves alone and unhappy. Some people may even feel hopeless and stuck in their circumstances. Humans tend to foster meaningful relationships with other people, and in order to preserve them, it is necessary to stay open, spread the light, and focus on positivity.

Some people would like to live alone from the outside world, never having met anybody who saves them. The author exhorts the reader to get out there and do whatever they can, as well as to lend a hand, sing, and connect with people. Humans were designed with a feeling of community and a desire to belong; therefore, no one can be fully satisfied by themselves.

When people stop speaking up about important issues, their lives end. Some individuals prefer to keep their distance from the outside world and their identities secret to avoid experiencing gloom. They choose to maintain a small distance from the world because they are afraid to enter it and expose their golden light to form meaningful relationships. Keeping to oneself is simpler than carrying a load on oneself out of fear of being used and the uncertainty of other people’s genuine motives. Life starts to end when a person remains mute about the issues that concern them and are crucial to their well-being. This represents the line “as if the self were a red bird that one squeezes in the hands thwarting the wish to fly” (Dobyns 4) from the poem “To Keep One’s Treasure Protected.” Several of the poem’s passages imply that although they want to leave this realm of darkness, individuals are skilled at concealing some things that are not for the rest of the world to see.

Humans will go downward, losing hope and feeling more confined, like a dog chained to a fence waiting for its master, if they do not have meaningful interactions. Whether the initial perception of the story is extremely optimistic or slightly pessimistic, it is obvious that the person in this story is in much distress. They are in such great agony that they even need to hide their emotions since they have no one with whom to share them. This line from the poem talks personally to whomever the reader is, describing how people tend to conceal their feelings when feeling lost: “As though they wore their smiles on the inside of their faces” (Dobyns 2). People occasionally go through catastrophic events in their lives and often have not developed any close ties with anyone.

Due to this, the person may feel hopeless and find it difficult to go through their current difficult period in life. “Those withhold at the doorway, those coal lumps running from the fire” (Dobyns 5) is a metaphor for the feeling of loneliness slowly replacing happiness and the flourishment of life. Devastating events and many other times do not necessarily have to be sad occurrences; they may be many other situations in which individuals choose darkness or themselves above light, and the rest of the world can be so effective due to the silence an individual chooses to maintain. In some situations, being quiet is not always the best action. However, standing out for people’s beliefs can only illuminate their lives. This does not imply that a person must remain silent out of apprehension that the golden light in life will be extinguished.

Some terrible events make people realize that everything that is needed for evil to flourish is for decent people to stand up for what is right. The terror of putting life in danger because a person chooses to remain silent is the realization that the day a person stops living is when good intentions are corrupted by evil and that neither good nor bad can ever be determined unless an individual speaks up. Some treasures are especially worthy of protection, in any case. A dread of losing something essential for something else that matters is not necessarily a terrible thing, but certain significant aspects of life are not designed for everyone to witness. By closing the existing racial and other gaps, real relationships that are appreciated may be achieved.

Realizing that person is not in a contest with the outside world or other people, nothing can be stolen from an individual until they allow evil to control life. If individuals focused more on the light, they emitted it in their own life and reflected it onto those who do not truly believe they have any in themselves. The world would be more peaceful, and more relationships would flourish. Everyone possesses light, but it is crucial to be ready to make an effort to allow it to show. The decisions impact personality, life, and others around. The more light that is shed, the more relationships will flourish, and the same light will be reflected. To achieve and have those fulfilling connections, it is necessary to be willing to give to get; therefore, it all depends on how hard a person works.

In conclusion, in his poem “To Keep One’s Treasure Protected,” Stephan Dobyns portrays his isolation and discontentment with life. Some individuals might not have the chance to establish meaningful relationships, and as a result, they end up feeling lonely and miserable. When people stay silent about the things that bother them, life begins to die. The art of Dobyns is a metaphor for how a sense of loneliness replaces happiness and the flourishing of life. The poem explains how individuals hide their emotions while they are feeling lost.

This does not suggest that one must be quiet because they are afraid their golden light may go out. The awareness that good intentions are corrupted the day a person ceases living makes individuals realize that speaking out for their views will only reveal their decision to keep silent. If people put more of their attention on the light, they would radiate it in their own lives and reflect it onto others who do not think they have any. The more partnerships that grow and reflect the same intentions, the more light will be shed.

Work Cited

Dobyns, Stephen. “To keep one’s treasure protected.” The Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 72, no. 1, 1996, pp. 95-96.