Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Claudia Emerson Andrews' poem "Bone" delves into themes of mortality, nature, and the cyclical nature of life and death through the discovery of a bone unearthed by a plow in the twilight. The poem opens with a stark, almost cinematic scene: the "first dark" of evening revealing something ancient and hidden, a bone, brought to the surface by human activity but belonging entirely to the natural world. This bone, devoid of flesh and bearing the marks of its time in the earth, becomes a powerful symbol of the past persisting into the present, of life persisting in the face of death.

The description of the bone as "fleshless, mud-ruddled, nothing but itself" emphasizes its isolation and the purity of its existence as a remnant of life. The "tendon's bored eye" metaphorically threading "a ponderous needle" suggests a connection to the living world it once belonged to, a thread of life that continues even in death. The bone's "pocked fist" defying "the mouth of the hound" symbolizes resilience, a defiance of the forces of decay and forgetfulness that consume all living things.

The poem's soundscape shifts with the introduction of the whippoorwill, whose "dusk-borne mourning" fills the twilight. The speaker admits to never having seen the bird, knowing it only by its sorrowful call, a lament for the unseen and unknown. This ignorance is juxtaposed with the bird's "mindlessly certain" repetition of its song, a natural instinct that contrasts with human fear of oblivion.

In the final act of the poem, the speaker engages directly with the cycle of nature by throwing the bone towards the sound of the whippoorwill. This act is not one of discarding but of offering, an acknowledgment of the interconnectedness of all living and non-living things. The bone's tumbling motion — "end over end over end" — mirrors the repetitive call of the bird, suggesting that in the natural world, everything is part of a continuous cycle of existence, transformation, and renewal.

"Bone" is a meditation on the permanence of the natural world in the face of human transience. Through the simple act of observing and interacting with a found bone, the speaker connects with the deep, enduring rhythms of the natural world. Andrews' language is both precise and evocative, capturing the beauty and mystery of these cycles and our place within them. The poem invites readers to reflect on their own relationship with the natural world, the legacy of the past, and the inevitability of death as a part of life's continuum.

POEM TEXT: https://poets.org/poem/bone

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