“Prisoners” by Denise Levertov [pg. 181-182]

I found that the word “ordinary” is a humorous description of what death’s door would be. I figured. First, I thought that at death people would be confronted at the gates of Heaven. Since it is Heaven, the gates are depicted as ornate and radiant. Yet, the door here is nothing special. The poem mentions that people are ready to enter death’s door. That also seemed bizarre. Death is used as a serious word, so it should be treated more seriously. But in this poem the people are eager to enter the door. It feels too suicidal for me. Also, the knowledge-apple is presented in the worst light as a rotten fruit. It’s a bitter irony since it was the fruit from the forbidden tree that gave people knowledge but damned mankind to mortality, according to the Bible. Calling it “acrid and riddled with grubs” would seem appropriate. That shows some spite to it. At the end of the next verse, I played with the “ash on the tongue” part. I got the idea that nothing satisfies a person after eating from the knowledge-fruit. Everything else might as well be ash. I like how happiness is described as common in the third verse. It feels as if everyone experiences it. The author relates the people as prisoners. They are forced to eat their ration. I think this relates to the idea that fate is pre-determined. Everyone will get their destined share of fruit (knowledge). Levertov ends with the idea of coming to death’s door and the long road in chains. I saw this as some kind of cycle, as in the cycle of life and death. Everyone will have their share of the knowledge apple and soon come to “death’s ordinary door” after taking the long road. I find the subject of this poem is the loss of innocence. It is lost by getting knowledge, like Adam and Eve just after eating the fruit. But to gain knowledge, a person must live through a life of experiences. That I related to walking the long road to death’s door. I believe it is described as ordinary since everyone will eventually knock on it. It’s like Disneyland everyone has gone there and nothing has changed over time; it’ll be an ordinary place. What creeps me out is that the poem ends with a mysterious “ordinary long-ago smile”. I wonder whether it is some greeting to the afterlife of some evil grin.