Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years From Now

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Environmental Context

“Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now” first appeared on the daily digital poetry series Poem-a-Day in 2017. The Academy of American Poets hosts the series on its poets.org website. By the time of the poem’s publication, concerns about climate change, environmental degradation, and the possibility of world-wide destruction of the planet were widespread. According to The Guardian, 2016 was the hottest year on record to date. Some scientists speculated that within 10 years the earth would no longer be habitable for humans, due to the devastation wrought by climate change, pollution, and toxins released into the environment. Yet many feared that human beings were not doing enough to stop or reverse the damage. In 2016, the electoral college elected Donald Trump, who later denied the reality of climate change and pulled out of the historic Paris Climate Agreement shortly after the publication of this poem. Environmental activists saw this as a mistake with potentially dire consequences.

Climate change, pollution, and industrial interests have had a negative impact on the climate. In the USA, timber companies have harvested forests for commercial use. Toxins released into the environment have devastated rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. The speaker of Olzmann’s poem assures the future interlocuter that this destruction hadn’t yet wiped out everything: “Absolutely, there were some forests left! / Absolutely there were still some lakes!” (Lines 13-14). The lines hold added weight, however: There are only “some forests left” and “some lakes” imply that within 50 years there will be no more forests or lakes left. The speaker therefore makes the case that the current generation can still save aspects of nature. The exclamation marks Olzmann uses indicate the speaker’s enthusiasm for those lakes and forests and the fact that they still exist.

Like the lakes and forests, the speaker indicates the animals are in danger. According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), approximately 10,000 species go extinct every year, due mainly to human activity. Environmental changes brought on by pollution and industrialization have also led to severe droughts, causing famine and starvation in various parts of the world, as well as severe storms, earthquakes, and cold snaps in others. Olzmann alludes to the cause of environmental degradation: He mentions “benzene, mercury” (Line 5), as well as “lead paint and sulfur dioxide” (Line 15). The poem reflects the concern of many who worry about their mark on the environment, fearful that they will leave “nothing / but […] the stomachs / of seagulls rippled with jet fuel and plastic” (Lines 4-6).

This poem poses a hypothetical but potentially realistic future in which “all the bees (are) dead” (Line 20), and it is too late to stop the destruction. The speaker depicts their generation as being appreciative of nature but too oblivious to save it. The poem expresses fears many in Olzmann’s generation have that it may be too late to reverse the damage unless society takes dramatic action, and a fear that human beings are unlikely to take that action. One could also argue that the poem depicts the unsettling harshness of a dystopian world in order to call readers to action to do something while there is still time.

Literary Context

Matthew Olzmann writes poems that deal with modernity and a quickly changing world with forthrightness and humor. He has said in interviews that he wants his poems to be accessible to people who aren’t scholars, and that humor can help engage an audience. Humor also subverts expectations. A humorous line can surprise a reader and make them think about more serious subjects in new ways.

In Constellation Route, Olzmann addresses issues of climate change and environmental degradation from human involvement. These poems carry an attitude of wonder and appreciation for the grandiosity of nature, yet they also depict surprise at the potential for human carelessness, callousness, and destruction. Humor is a noticeable motif, such as with “Letter to Matthew Olzmann, Sent Telepathically from a Flock of Pigeons Surrounding Him on a Park Bench in Detroit,” “Letter to the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America,” and “Letter to Man Who Carved Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America.”

Arguably, “Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now” is one of the more serious poems in the collection as it poses the dire potential of an ecological collapse. It is an example of speculative fiction, which depicts an alternate reality or speculates on what the future might look like. Many of Olzmann’s poems take place in the current moment, but “Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now” paints a picture of a dystopian version of earth only 50 years in the future. Readers are encouraged to suspend their disbelief and take the premise as inevitable for the sake of understanding the poem.

It is one of Olzmann’s shortest poems, making the final line, “[a]nd then all the bees were dead” (Line 20), stand out as abrupt in comparison to the length of the rest of the poems in the collection. The silence after that line is meant to sink in and startle the readers with its solemnity. Still the poem contains elements of humor including exaggeration, irony, and language.

Nearly all Olzmann’s poems are written in modern vernacular, employing colloquialisms and diction ordinary people would use in casual conversation. This makes poems accessible to a wider population by exploring and speaking for the average person. When the poet uses that vernacular to discuss serious subjects like climate change, it subverts expectations, creating a juxtaposition between the solemnity of the topic and the casualness of the language. Traditionally, critics have used humor to critique society, disguising messages that might be dangerous, insulting, or painful in playful banter. This allows readers and listeners to lower their defenses so they can be open to the message.

In “Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now,” the speaker calls constellations “illuminated doodles / of scorpion outlines and upside-down ladles” (Lines 10-11). These are colloquial ways of referring to topics that many poets have described with elevated language. This reveals the speaker as representing a generation lacking reverence. At the same time, it engages readers who may feel more comfortable using and reading this kind of language instead of using more “poetic” tropes. Olzmann has said in several interviews that showing irreverence also implies reverence.