Essay, Research Paper: "The Day Zimmer Lost Religion" By Paul Zimmer

In "The Day Zimmer Lost Religion" by Paul Zimmer the poet reflects how in losing religion he has found faith in Christ. He recounts how religion taught him to fear Christ as a young boy which influenced him to challenge religion and eventually find faith in Christ. As a child, he expected to be punished, but the punishment never comes and now as a man he realizes he is ready to accept Christ as he has found faith in Christ and in return his religion.
In the first stanza the poet describes the beginning of his rebellion towards religion and his faith as he recalls "The first Sunday I missed mass on purpose” (1). The poet felt guilty about missing mass for the first time and "waited all day for Christ to climb down / Like a wiry flyweight from the cross and / Club me on my irreverent teeth…” (2-4). “Wiry flyweight” is a simile used to describe the speed and agility that he expected to be struck. The poets uses another simile (like a red-hot thurible) to describe his punishment as he expects Christ “to wade into / My blasphemous gut and drop me like a / Red hot thurible…" (4-6). The outcome of his sacrilege is clear as he anticipated the devil “…roaring in / Reserved seats until he got the hiccups” (6-7). He believed the devil to be eagerly waiting the outcome to claim his soul.
The second stanza is a remembrance of religion during his childhood as he remembers "It was a long cold way from the old days" (8). As an adult he has now come "A long way from the dirty wind that blew / The soot like venial sins across the schoolyard" (11-12). Here I believe he is using a metaphor (dirty wind) to illustrate the evils in life that he describes using a simile (like venial sins). The evils being the religion as it was taught to him. During his childhood, "God reigned as a threatening, / One-eyed triangle high in the fleecy sky" (13-14). Again, a metaphor (one-eyed triangle) is used to describe the fear he had as a child in the reign of the Holy Trinity as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The last stanza of the poem repeats that he "waited all day for Christ to climb down / Like a playground bully, the cuts and mice / Upon his face agleam, and pound me / Till me irreligious tongue hung out" (16-19). The poet seems to believe that Christ is obligated to punish him for his irreverence. He compares his faith in Christ to that of a playground bully, as he believed that his religion as a child was not by choice, but by force. The last two lines, "But of course He never came, knowing that / I was grown up and ready for Him now" (20-21), indicate that the Christ of his childhood religion did not come, but now as an adult he has lost his boyhood religion and has found faith in Christ. This poem could reasonably be entitled “The day Zimmer Lost Religion and Found Christ.” Zimmer believed in God and Christ; it was the bureaucracy of religion that he did not believe or accept.


Word Count: 543