In the Griffy the Cooper poem in Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters the Cooper talks about tubs being the Cooper that he is, but he uses tubs as a metaphor where the tub is like your life and he remarks about how it is very hard to look over your own tub to see the whole picture or all of life. This was one of the best relations I have ever seen before. It is so true too.
“You think your eye sweeps about a wide horizon, perhaps, In truth you are only looking around the interior of your tub. You cannot lift yourself to its rim and see the outer world of things, and at the same time see yourself. You are submerged in the tub of yourself–” (31).
I was fascinated the Masters could take someone who knew a lot about tubs and make him the wisest person that I have seen so far in this book. He relates your tub to life and shows how people are unable to see the whole world and they are unable to understand what life really is. They can only grasp the things that are in their tub. If you think about how small a tub is compared to the world, the Cooper is showing how little we know about life. So many people say that they know about life, but the Cooper puts it in a perfect way. He shows in his relation that it is no wonder that most think that they know a lot about life because all they see is their life, and they know everything about their little life. If they only knew that there is more just beyond the rim of their tub…
