Frank O’Hara was a key member of the New York School of poetry. He was also an American writer and art critic. His poetry is autobiographical and is based on observations on what was happening to him in the moment. It also shows the influence of the abstract expressionism, surrealism, Russian poetry and poets that were associated with the French Symbolism.
I think the poem is relevant to Donald Draper going through an evolutionary period in his life. He is changing the image that has become of him and the poem is in reference to that. Donald Draper was going through dark times in his life after his divorce and began his old lifestyle again. I guess in a way this poem could be relevant to anyone at any given time. It doesn’t matter if you’re a middle aged man or a college student about to graduate; there is constant change in everyone’s lives. There are those dark days that everyone goes through and once you start to go through that evolutionary period, you then realize that you are becoming you again. “It may be the coldest day of the year, what does he think of that? I mean, what do I? And if I do, perhaps I am myself again.”
