The Truth the Dead Know
Gone, I say and walk from church
refusing the stiff procession to the grave,
letting the dead ride alone in the hearse.
It is June. I am tired of being brave.
We drive to the Cape. I cultivate
myself where the sun gutters from the sky,
where the sea swings in like an iron gate
and we touch. In another country people die.
My darling, the wind falls in like stones
from the whitehearted water and when we touch
we enter touch entirely. No one’s alone.
Men kill for this, or for as much.
And what of the dead? They lie without shoes
in their stone boats. They are more like stone
than the sea would be if it stopped. They refuse
to be blessed, throat, eye, and knucklebone.
How does it make you feel?
What do you think its the meaning of it?
You left the church, but did not go to the grave site. After you left the church you headed down to the Cape, pretty day in June. You and your partner are intimate, and you comment, there are a lot of people wish they had the same type of intimacy. But the dead are dead and your feeling all this after the funeral, because of the affect it had on you! Sad and thankful –we have life!
Good job, well done!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
The first stanza is about grieving a lost one.
The second stanza is a beautiful morbid dip in the sea.
Third is remembering the love.
The dead are like stillness and rejection.
What a great poem. Who is it by?
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poetry is one section down.
they’re not even remotely spelled the same, how can u miss it?
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You left the church, but did not go to the grave site. After you left the church you headed down to the Cape, pretty day in June. You and your partner are intimate, and you comment, there are a lot of people wish they had the same type of intimacy. But the dead are dead and your feeling all this after the funeral, because of the affect it had on you! Sad and thankful –we have life!
Good job, well done!
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This seems to be a poem where the narrator contemplates death. I don’t think the second stanza is about drowning. I think the narrator is driving in a car to the Cape (near the ocean) and is thinking about our short lives. The use of the word touch in the second and third stanzas seems important as I think it signifies the connections we make with others while we are alive and the narrator is wondering what happens to those connections when we are dead. Life is like the ocean, the dead are like stone.
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Certainly 10 points…
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what do i think of it? i think its beautiful. paints a beautiful picture. i love it did u write it?
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I love this poem, its by Anne Sexton right? she started writing after her parents died. This poem is beautiful I love it’s use of metaphors that flow easily and beautifuly. This is a very meloncoly poem, I think this poem is about the death of her parents and how she’s tired of being brave and excepting it, that yes everone dies but these were people that meant something to her and how sad death is for they can never live again never experience life or do anything again. Very sad
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Honestly i’m still trying to figure out the meaning behinde it. I do like ti tho. Not sure how it makes me feel tho either. Sorry… but it is good
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That makes me think of everything that i have done right AND wrong…
When people are thinking of all those things, they should make sure they don’t leave ANYTHING out.
I believe that this poem is made to have everyone that reads it, think of everything in the world. It is a great form of meditation.
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Poem about death makes me feel a bit sad- and it continues as the irony of life is that it keeps going on in spite of death.
The dead are gone
And also about……..from dust to dust l as like Life and Death
The dead don’t need what we do……..like shoes
very nice poem, it flows well when read outloud
Who wrote it?
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well i think it’s a great poem but i rele don’t have the energy now to seek the profound meaning
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