Poetry Response #9 (Sestina)

“What none knows is when, not if.” Frank Bidart’s poem, If see no end in is, is a very sophisticated reflection on the mysteries of life and the future. Its title is the end words from the first stanza that Bidart repeats throughout each additional stanza (structure of a sestina). He continues, saying, “the finite you know, you fear is infinite.” Meaning that much of our fear originates in the unknown- we fear what we cannot see, understand, hold, etc.

            Each stage in life is characterized by stepping into a new unknown abyss- that's not meant to sound so negative, simply dark. Each new chapter opens in figurative "darkness" and, as Bidart says, “the future will be different: you cannot see/ the end.” So each “future” is new and different- his poem addresses the fact that you cannot prepare for what you cannot see coming, so there are always aspects of the future which are unprepared for and hazy. One of the only concretes or definite assertions in the poem is that time will pass, the future will come--it is a matter of "when" not "if." 

            All the time Bidart is speaking about the uncertainties of the future, he is also talking about the blindness of the present. He gives the example of unreturned love: “You cannot see what is there to see —/not when she whose love you failed is/ standing next to you.” Bidart is overall expanding his idea that life is all ambiguity, that there is no preparation, exercise, or forethought that can get you ready for what life has in store. I have always heard the colloquialism “you can’t see the forest for the trees,” meaning that one cannot see the whole picture while he or she is in the situation and that “what none knows is when, not if.”