The name of this piece drew me to it. I have often wondered what people think about as they die. (I would like to clarify that I do not always think about death, only what dying people think about.) You always hear tell that you see your entire life flash before your eyes, but which parts of your life do you see. Do you see the good? The bad? Everything? How short is a life if it can pass before your eyes in an instant?
The first lines of the poem pose a question:
Has the remnant of my life
Been pilfered of this sunny Spring (474)?
I am accustomed to the word pilfer meaning to steal. My thesaurus used the phrase “make off with” as a synonym of pilfer. I liked this phrasing because it presents the idea that life can be taken away. Is this how it feels when you’re dying? That the rest of the live you could have or should have had was taken from you. And if so, who took it?
Wordsworth goes on to speak of the “hidden life” laying dormant within herself. I have often heard terminally ill people say that they are not finished yet, that they still have more life left to live. Is this the hidden life of which she speaks? The life that was unable to be taken away. The flame that still burns within the vessel.
She uses this remaining life to leave. To go away from this place, to no longer be a “prisoner in this lonely room (475).
Deborah,
ReplyDeleteVery insightful comments and observations on Dorothy Wordsworth's poem, with sensitive attention to quoted passages that you analyze. Keep up the good work!
Deborah, after reading several of your poems I am realy intrigued how you explore them so much in depth with your own insights. Thanks for the interpretation of the words here in the poem. Helps me grasp some of the things I didnt see, for example pilfer.
ReplyDeleteI really like the way you took the work pilfer to get a better understanding of what Wordsworth was going through when she was there on her sick-bed. Reading this poem I admire her for not feeling sorry for herself during this time. Even though her life was basically going on at such an early age, she seemed to be satisfied with that short life. I am a Christian and I try to leave my lift to the fullest with faith in God daily. If my time came soon I do not think I would be sad, I would be just as ready.
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