Rough Draft || “A Coney Island Life” by James L. Weil

People nowadays treat life as if it is forever. Instead of making dreams come true, people would rather wait for their dreams to come to them. When will it ever occur to them that life is a very valuable artifact and that they shouldn’t take it for granted. It is better to take chances in life than living it in a restricted “box”. “A Coney Island Life” by James L. Weil compares life to a carnival in New York. Talking about a carousel ride the person in this poem has a scarce amount of time left in their life and is reflecting on the obstacles that they encountered. The poem conveys the idea that time is valuable and we shouldn’t be waiting on goals and opportunities to come to us.

I believe that we haven’t lived life yet if we haven’t encountered an obstacle. Life is not perfect. It has its fun, scary, and sad moments. While fulfilling their dreams, people experience “roadblocks” but that doesn’t give them an excuse to turn around and give up. Instead it gives them a reason to work around or through the obstacle. Just like what James L. Weil said in the poem, “Having lived a Coney Island life, on roller coasters ups and downs.”, he gave the reader an idea of perseverance. So when there is no hope left, the only thing left to do is to carry on. In the poem, the line, “Now arms filled with dolls I threw so much for.”, gives the hidden meaning that determination helps accomplish many things in life. To reach a goal, people would have to sacrifice things in their life. This line tells the readers that no matter at what cost, achieving a goal would give you happiness and confidence.

Many people do not realize that time goes by fast, and it could never be restored. It also doesn’t wait for anybody, so one must value and catch their dreams before it’s too late. When James L. Weil said “And seen my helium hopes break skyward without me.” , he meant that his dreams were leaving him before he could even reach it. Knowing this as a reader, I believe that I should not waste time by waiting on my goals to come to me. James L. Weil shows us that to accomplish a dream it requires hard work, determination, and time. People may not know this but, the beginning is somewhat close to the end. Time ticks every second. In the poem, James L. Weil expresses the value of time by stating “I take perhaps my last ride on this planet carousel”. By saying this, he is telling the reader to use time wisely and not waste it on useless things. He is comparing a carousel ride to how much time he has left on the earth before he dies.

Through quotes and metaphors, James L. Weil teaches us a lesson on life, time, and dreams. Even though this poem does not have a lot of lines or stanzas, it still gives us a great lecture on how to live our life. Within the thirteen line poem, James L. Weil explained to the reader to never give up on goals because there is no such thing as an obstacle to big for them to overcome. James portrays the idea of pushing ourselves to the limit so that when the end comes, we would not die of regret but leave with a satisfaction that we have lived out lives to the fullest.