Love poem: Chimera

When I first read Love Poem: Chimera, I was a bit confused about it, but I'm starting to slowly realize that poems aren't meant to always be understood. Anyways, once I read it a couple times I assumed it was about a women getting pregnant, although that did not make sense in some of the context of the poem. Once we went over the poem in class however, the introduction of chimera as being a beast from Greek mythology got me to understand the poem more.

I have an interesting idea of what the author might have been intending, or perhaps it is just my view. The whole poem basically is describing some beast, however the author makes no mention of hate of the "beast". He describes this "beast" in a way where most people would be repulsed if we laid eyes on it today. He writes in his second stanza, "From mane/ to forked tongue beneath the skin". This gives the reader the image of a hybrid creature of perhaps a lion, and a snake, which he most likely is describing given his first line of the poem. Anyways, my view on the poem is that the author is trying to connect this to how he views society. He describes this creature, however he mentions no hate towards it. This makes me think that although this creature might be hideous he cannot hate it. By combining my view with his poem, you might get that the author is describing society and how monster like we have become. His last line is almost a question to the reader, "What we've made of ourselves". This might be asking the reader if they are happy with society, or just stating that we as a society have made ourselves into a creature that most people would describe as horrifying. With this being said however, the author doesn't intend on us hating society, but perhaps just forcing the reader to look at ourselves. The overall tone of the poem does not scream hate, or love for this creature, it is more of a neutral tone, which again backs up my view on the author just having us take a step back and look at what we have become.