Patricia A. Fleming's Meaning 'What Life Should Be'

Everyone has their own idea of how they should live their life. "What Life Should Be" is an inspiring poem written by Patricia A. Fleming. Patricia A. Fleming was the middle child of three and had a middle-class upbringing. She worked as a psychiatric social worker for 36 years and after retiring, she began writing inspirational poems about life. The poem "What Life Should Be" argues what it means to be a human. She uses many different strategies to make the point across to the reader.

In Fleming's poem, each stanza has an arrangement of different character traits that everyone should try and achieve. The first stanza says that we should learn all these different traits, while we are young and the fact that the world doesn’t revolve around us and there is more out there. It is better to grow up learning these traits young, so that as we get older they can be used to help us make choices. "To overcome the tragedies// and still manage to be kind." Fleming talks about even when going through a hard time in life, we still must still be true to ourselves and stay kind. There are times in our lives. where we feel like the world is against u. Knowing that it is not and continuing on with life is important. Within the stanzas, the second and fourth lines rhyme to pull the two ideas together. For instance, in the third stanza it states, "To always share my light/ To love with all my might." Fleming is trying to portray the idea to be there for others and love and accept them. In today's world it is hard to find acceptance and becoming an accepting person is a good trait to …show more content…
After reading the title a few questions come to mind. What should life be? How does anyone know? Everyone has their own idea of what life should be, how is ones' idea better than another? The poem does a good job of explaining each character trait that people find important in life. Fleming's idea of what life should be is what everyone wants in their