The Door

            The poem "The Door" forces the reader to acknowledge the fact that for individuals to live fulfilling lives they must "open" their minds to new ideas, experiences and concepts to obtain satisfaction from what society has to offer. "The Door" itself is a metaphor for change, so by the usage of the grammatical imperative "go and open the door" the poet is suggesting the importance for the need to embrace change and the need to be "open" for it. In the first stanza, the combination of the word "Maybe" with the image of "a magic city" suggests the infinite possibilities that exist for an individual if they open their minds. Natural imagery of "a tree a wood / a garden" has positive connotations that suggest that embracing change has positive advantages. Throughout the second stanza the poet uses images of everyday aspects of life, "a face/ an eye", as a metaphor for human contact to suggests how individuals are able to gain form interacting with new people. Usage of the metaphor "a picture/ of a picture" suggests how by embracing change we can be inspired which then stimulates new ideas. By using "a fog" in the third stanza as a metaphor for confusion, the poet uses symbolism to convey how an individual can be confused by change but that this confusion "will clear" as they open themselves to change. In the fourth stanza, the poet uses the image of the "darkness ticking" as a meta-phor for an individual's fear of change, but even so it is still important to "go and open the door". The poem suggests that "even if / nothing / is there" that a person must "go and open the door" because there still might be "a draught" which suggests the inevitable nature of change and therefore how we need to embrace it.