”If Tomorrow Starts Without Me” by David M. Romano explores love and death in their verses. It is written not in fear or anticipation of death, but in order to establish the idea of how the absence or aftermath should be dealt with.

If Tomorrow starts without Me: Structure

‘‘When Tomorrow Starts Without Me’’ by David M. Romano has variations in its rhyme scheme. For instance, it has a scheme of AABA in the first stanza and ABCB in the second stanza. Again in the third stanza, it follows a rhyme scheme of  ABAB. From the fourth stanza onwards we see the ABCB rhyme scheme. It is a poem that is divided into nine stanzas and is separated into sets of four lines.

Analysis of If Tomorrow starts without Me

David Romano uses his poetic persona to address the poem. He starts his poem with a nostalgic tone that sends his readers into an emotional trance. The opening line begins with an ‘if’ and imparts a tinge of uncertainty to the whole poem. The poet begins by presenting a nostalgic scenario-that is, ‘if’ tomorrow starts without him and he is presumably not there to see the day.

He says if the sun rises to find his loved ones’ eyes filled with tears for him(meaning that he is dead) then he wishes that the person he addresses in this poem( his beloved) would not shed as many tears as he/she did that day while thinking of “the many things” they did not get to share or say to each other.

With each passing line, the sense of nostalgia is heightened. He expresses that he knew how much they loved each other and each time the beloved thought of him, he would know that she/he will miss him too.

The poet then emphasizes the fact by changing his ‘if’ to ‘when’ and goes on to say that when tomorrow starts without him, his beloved must understand that an angel had come and called his name and with that his journey into the next world had begun. The angel had said that his place in heaven was ready and that the poet would have to leave everything behind including those he loved dearly.

The poet then mentions about him shedding a tear for all his life he did not want to die. No one is ever ready for a thing like death. The poet says he had “so much to live for and so much to do.” It seemed incomprehensible and an impossible fact that the poet was about to leave his beloved forever.

The poet recalled all the good and bad memories and the love they shared and the fun they had. He thinks of all the things he would do if he could relive the past-say goodbye, kiss his beloved and see her smile. To achieve the past is next to impossible n he fully realized that.  The void that he would leave would soon be taken up by memories and emptiness. Among all the worldly things that tomorrow might bring, the poet would miss his beloved the most, and this particular thought brought sorrow to his eyes.

The lines that entail present a picture of when the poet has ascended to heaven and he is walking through its gates. The poet confesses he feels at home. God had looked down and smiled at him from where he was a seated-a great golden throne. The almighty had presented him the eternity with which he was promised, where his life had started anew.

Since each day in heaven as supposed to be the same, ‘today’ would last forever and there would be no longing or yarning of the past. Encountering God led to revelations on how faithful and trusting the path had been and other thing that he shouldn’t have done.  However, he had been forgiven nd he was free. This stanza in particular produces a vision of the Christian concept of the afterlife.

The last four lines are the oft-quoted lines of the poem as the author iterates his final words to his beloved, and he reinforces the idea that when tomorrow starts without him (as all mortals are destined to die eventually, therefore ‘when’ instead of ‘if’) every time the beloved is reminded of the poet, he would be right there in his/her heart.

If Tomorrow starts without Me: Themes

Death, uncertainty, love and grief all form the central themes of the poem. Although another fair reading of the poem will be not from the point of view of death but of absence. The poem focuses on how to deal with grief and absence when things come to an end, and the aftermath of it and how people should deal with it.

FAQs

What does the poem when tomorrow starts without me mean?

The poem focuses on how to deal with grief and absence when things come to an end, and the aftermath of it and how people should deal with it.