Themes
Regret
As a tone and theme, regret is the driving force of “Dear Future Generations: Sorry.” From the poem’s opening lines, “I think I speak for the rest of us when I say, / Sorry,” (Lines 2-3), the speaker conveys regret. Defined as feeling of sadness or disappointment about something that has happened or has been done, regret implies an action that has already happened, and which cannot be undone. In “Dear Future Generations: Sorry,” the speaker has regret for the way the planet has been treated and mistreated, the deforestation, air and water pollution, and the inhospitable planet that will inevitably pass to future generations.
Much of the poem communicates sorrow and a feeling of powerlessness that defines the speaker’s regret. The poem functions as a list poem in which the regrets are listed and stacked up. Each regret functions as a mistake that humanity made concerning the earth and environment. For example, the speaker states in Line 59, “I’m sorry that our footprints became a sinkhole and not a garden” (Line 59). While the listed regrets function in the poem as mistakes, these mistakes are challenged in Line 65 with the volta, and the speaker states, “Because an error does not become a mistake / Until you refuse to correct it” (Lines 67-68). While regrets happen in the past, the present is an opportunity to change and keep these regrets from continuing to happen, or from happening again. “Dear Future Generations: Sorry” begins in regret but ends on an entirely different theme that instead communicates hope.
Lamentation
Lamentation is a prevailing theme in “Dear Future Generations: Sorry.” Defined as a passionate expression of grief or sorrow, lamentation in “Dear Future Generations: Sorry” is used both as an overall theme and as a literary device in the poem. Closely tied to other literary moves made within the poem–such as repetition–lamentation expresses the speaker’s deep grief over the state of the planet. This grief spills over, much like the structure of the poem–long lines that extend beyond the speaker’s own breath–to convey to the reader the dire situation of the earth and humanity’s existence. Repeatedly throughout the poem the speaker openly states their sadness and sorrow at the thoughtlessness of humanity in lines such as, “And that wouldn’t make me so sad / If there weren’t so many pictures of leaves on it,” (Lines 30-31), or “Which brings me great sorrow, because most of us today / Don’t even care about tomorrow,” (Lines 36-37). This lamentation is not only for a disappointment in humanity, but for the subsequent loss of the natural world. For example, in talking about deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest, the speaker states, “Which is why I am so sorry to tell you / We burned [the trees] down / Cut them down with brutal machines, horrific / At a rate of 40 football fields every minute” (Lines 23-25). For the speaker, humanity’s thoughtless destruction is a twofold loss.
What makes the speaker’s laments so poignant in “Dear Future Generations: Sorry” is that they pair horrific loss with natural beauty. For example, before describing the deforested Amazon Rainforest (as quoted above), the poem leaps into rhythmical, rhyming verse as the speaker describes how wonderful trees are: “Well let me tell you that trees are amazing / And I mean, we literally breathe the air / They are creating, and they clean up our pollution / Our carbon, they store and purify water, / Give us medicine that cures our disease, food that feeds us” (Lines 18-22). These lines, which praise trees, are all the more sorrowful when abruptly juxtaposed with their rapid destruction, as seen in the imagery of burning forests and “brutal machines” (Line 25) in the name of profit.
Hope
While much of “Dear Future Generations: Sorry” takes place within the feeling and theme of regret, the poem dramatically shifts in Line 65 and adopts a new theme, feeling, and mode: Hope becomes prominent. Addressing the degrading climate and polluted planet, the speaker turns the narrative in Line 69 and asks, “We can redirect this, how?” What follows is a long stanza built on hope. While much of the poem so far has narrated the negative effects of humanity on earth, the poem ends with a call to action, directly addressing the reader and offering ideas of what can be done to stop and reverse the destruction of the earth. For example, in Line 70 the speaker says, “Let me suggest that if a farmer sees a tree that is unhealthy / They don’t look at the branches to diagnose it / They look at the root” (Lines 70-73). Like the farmer, the speaker asks the reader to recognize their own role in climate change. They state, “We are the root, we are the foundation, this generation / It is up to us to take care of this planet” (Lines 76-77). The final movement of the poem is rooted in power, hope, and action. The speaker gives the reader agency and expects them to change for the sake of earth.
Hope as a theme is essential to “Dear Future Generations: Sorry” and its message. Had the poem concluded with Line 63, “I’m sorry we didn’t find another planet in time to move to” (Line 63), the fate of earth and humanity would have been decided. However, because the poem moves in Line 65 towards hope, Prince Ea gives the reader the opportunity to recognize past mistakes and decide, consciously, to work for change.
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