Can someone please analyze this poem? (In brief or detail, doesn't matter)

Question

How the columns of the body

Corrode and collapse,

Despite girdings of cotton and silk,

Or buttresses of expensive ointments.

How Death camps out in the body

To seize it by surprise.

How it charges, then, through veins

And arteries, or along nerves and muscle,

Discharging tissue and organs,

So that the heart calcifies to bone.

The issue is to sing until breath is gone.

Flagging, I hurl these words

To shout down Time

Just as it becomes Eternity.

Answer 1

Hi Maya,

This is a beautifully written poem to capture the transience of life.

The poem describes a body that is frail and failing, from the limbs (arms, legs,...) to the insides (organs, heart, ...). No matter what attempts are made to hide the suffering from the outside, Death wins. At the end, we say our last words yet no matter how hard we try to resist that our Time is up, Time became Eternity and so it has won.

There are many other literary devices in the poem (metonym, assonance, personification, etc.).If you would like to discuss this poem in more detail, feel free to message me for a session.

-Winn

Answer 2

HI there!

This poem is about the process of dying. It describes the feeling of dying, and how it flows between each organ, each bone, and each system. It describes how Death is the end stage of our life, and we are never prepared for it. As the poem states, To seize it by surprise, it explains how it caught up the author or the character. They further explain how they had to shut Time in order for it to become Eternity, meaning this character feels that he lost his chance to live his life, that time would forever go without him.

If you need any more help or advice, message me! Will love to help!