Fame and Fear Philip Levine

First I wanted to just say that I found it extremely interesting that Levine was a student of Robert Lowell and John Berryman. I liked this fact because I really enjoy Lowell, I also like Levine as well. A major point made in much of Levine's work is of the working class men and women. As he was himself. As one can also see time is a great point as well. "Half an hour to dress"..." save my smoke-stained lungs"..."drink himself to death"..."smoking traces puddled at my feet like so much milk and melting snow"..."Christmas ornaments on the racks"..."screw back my wedding ring." All of these lines jumbled together sometimes seem a little confusing. What I take from it is the past, present, and the future. This individual has been through time. I know that for me the smoking of cigarettes always reminds me of someone passing time or getting through a moment. I saw this in a section of the poem as well " Ahead lay my second cigarette, held in a shaking hand, as I took into myself the sickening heat to quell heat, a lunch of two Genoa salami sandwhiches and swiss cheese on heavy peasant bread baked by my Aunt Tsipie, and a third cigarette to kill the taste of the others." This reminds me of a working class man. Levine worked in a factory at age 14 during the wars. I imagine he saw much of a routine day of a working class man smoking cigarettes to keep warm, pass the time, and they were affordable because you could make them yourselves. Cigarettes to quench hunger, used to socialize, it was a working class trademark which is why I feel it fits perfectly with his definition in this poem. He writes of this man dressing up in a chemical suit to protect himself from the chemicals yet he poisons himself all day long with these cigarettes. Just another passage of time.