Dying

by Robert Pinsky p. 455-6

This seems to be mainly a meditation on death. Initially it is dealt with in reference to things, concrete and abstract that die--dogs, metaphors--and then the poem moves to "someone I know is dying" which I think is the triggering subject of the poem. Then he moves to things that are growing but also dying, as we all are. The speaker also mentions pace of dying. The dying acquaintance is dying faster than the rest of us, which makes it more significant. There are also comparisons of human death to the other living things: the moth is nerveless like the nails and hair on our bodies but it is also like a soul. I don't know what to make of the last line: "Bored and impatient in the monster's mouth." Maybe the monster's mouth is a metaphor for the universe. The feeling I get from this poem is the interconnectedness of all life and death. There are nine 3-line stanzas, about half end-stopped and the lines are relatively long but there is plenty of punctuation within the lines in the first four stanzas. I think the stanzas flow more, having less punctuation in the remaining stanzas, the pace actually quickens, which makes us feel the increased pace of some deaths compared to others.