Tear it Down

In “Tear It Down,” the reader is asked to reconceptualize their relationship to the world. Throughout the poem, the speaker repeats a plea for the reader to re-envision what they know of life, love, and the world around them to better understand these concepts on a deeper level.

The early lines of the poem use verbs and phrasing like “dismantling” (Line 1), “redefining” (Line 2), “break through” (Line 4), “get beyond” (Line 5), and “unlearn” (Line 7). The verbiage relates the concept of the poem; even the title, “Tear It Down,” asks the reader to tear down what they know. Destruction is not the end goal, but a means of redefining the human relation to the world and each individual self. The commonality between the language displays and connects the theme of reconceptualization—whether it be people’s relationships with their hearts, love, joy, sorrow, or myriad other emotions and circumstances. Though the poem deals with internal feeling and thought, people’s personal mentalities and experiences directly correlate to how they connect to and move through the world.

The final line of the poem uses the infinitive “to reach” (Line 18), presenting what will occur once a person redefines their world—the ability to see beyond initial perceptions and reach a more meaningful, nuanced knowledge.