In "I Go Back to May 1937," the utilization of life and death binaries is depicted in a sequence of
inescapable sadness, illustrating the dark side of life. First, the poem highlighted death with line
21, "You are going to die, I want to go." which was used to convey the sorrow that the
couple(and eventual narrator) had when they agreed to marry one another. The mother and
father are unable to perceive the full degree of the anguish, but the narrator has a clear view of
it, prompting her to intervene. The line "I want to go" reveals the narrator's cognitive process in
dealing with the predicament, and the viewer of the poem is then confronted with the tempting
question of whether the agony would go away if she went and informed them about their
inescapable sadness. The poem's use of life is more selfish and self-serving. "I want to go up to
them and say stop....," says line 25. But I don't do it; I want to live." For a brief while, the narrator
ignores the mother and father's experiences in order to consider this encounter as beneficial. At
the same time, there are a lot of dismal undertones, such as acknowledging the futility of this
circumstance (futility of life), which implies that no matter how hard you try, nothing favorable will
happen, so you should just give up. The narrator has had enough of the suffering; she has given
up on "what ifs" and has reclaimed control of her life by offering optimism as easy as life itself.