"Paradiso," Koch's poem about human longing and disillusionment, was published the year following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. While the poem may primarily disclose a personal agenda to overcome the frustration of individual loss and the struggle to find contentment afterwards, it also reflects a general societal disillusionment found in the United States following these attacks.

Although it seems artificial to concentrate blame for an entire nation's despair and pessimism on one individual or one event, it is clear that the devastating and unprecedented occurrences of September 11 sent a chilling message to Americans regardless of where they lived on the planet: your world is not as secure as you think it is. In 2002, one of the prevalent American concerns was the location and desired capture of Osama bin Laden, thought to be the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and the United States waged...