Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Robert Creeley’s "Funeral" offers a stark, unadorned reflection on death and the rituals surrounding it, viewed through the lens of childhood memory. The poem is built around a moment of confusion and emotional dissonance, as the speaker recalls his grandmother’s funeral and the associated events, which are filtered through a child’s perspective. Creeley’s characteristic minimalist style is on full display, using simple language and fragmented observations to evoke complex emotions about loss, family, and the way we process death.

The poem begins with the question, "Why was grandma / stacked in sitting room / so’s people could come / in, tramp through." This opening line is immediately disorienting, as the use of "stacked" to describe the grandmother’s body is both jarring and distancing. It reflects a child’s perhaps naïve or unfiltered perception of death—seeing the body not as something sacred, but as an object that is positioned or "stacked." The word "tramp" to describe how people came through the house adds a layer of disrespect or thoughtlessness, as if the funeral attendees are going through the motions without fully considering the gravity of the moment. This impression of ritual as something impersonal or obligatory contrasts with the deep emotional significance funerals are supposed to hold. The childlike confusion over why the grandmother was placed in such a setting suggests a gap between the solemnity of death and the rituals that follow, as seen from a perspective that is not yet fully able to comprehend these conventions.

The next lines—"What did we eat / that day before"—shift the focus to the mundane, almost trivial details of the funeral day. The speaker doesn’t dwell on the emotions of loss, but instead fixates on the practicalities: what was eaten, how people moved through the day. This focus on food is typical of a child’s experience, where the unfamiliarity of death is juxtaposed with the familiar, comforting routines of daily life. In times of grief, the ordinary details—like what was eaten—often stand out, perhaps because they are easier to process than the abstract or emotional weight of death. This creates a dissonance, where the gravity of death is undercut by the normalcy of everyday activities.

The poem then moves to the burial: "we all drove off / to the cemetery in Natick / to bury her with grandpa." The phrase "we all drove off" maintains the sense of routine, as if the burial is just another task to be completed. The cemetery in Natick is presented as a destination, but it lacks any emotional resonance in the description. The burial of the grandmother "with grandpa" is stated matter-of-factly, with no elaboration on the significance of this familial reunion in death. The lack of sentimentality in the description mirrors the speaker’s detachment or confusion about the rituals of death, again emphasizing the childlike perspective that struggles to make sense of the formality and finality of a funeral.

The poem’s attention then shifts to the cemetery itself: "back where the small airport / plane flew over / their modest lot there." This detail, of the small airport plane flying over the cemetery, adds an unexpected element to the scene. The image of a plane—a symbol of movement, travel, and life—flying over the cemetery introduces a contrast between the static finality of the gravesite and the dynamic life continuing above. The "modest lot" reinforces the ordinariness of the grandparents’ lives, suggesting that they were humble, everyday people buried in an unremarkable place. The intrusion of the plane, however, creates a sense of disconnection, as if life outside the cemetery continues heedlessly, indifferent to the solemnity of the burial below.

The final lines—"where us kids could / look through the bushes, / see plane flying around or / sitting on the ground"—reveal the perspective of the speaker and other children, who are more interested in the plane than the funeral itself. The image of the children peeking through bushes to watch the plane highlights their detachment from the gravity of the situation. The plane, a symbol of distraction or escape, holds more fascination for them than the burial of their grandmother. This contrast between the children’s curiosity and the solemn occasion unfolding around them underscores the theme of misunderstanding or incomprehension of death from a child’s point of view. The children are physically present at the funeral, but their attention is elsewhere, focused on something far removed from the emotional weight of the moment.

Structurally, the poem is written in free verse, with Creeley’s typical fragmented syntax that mirrors the speaker’s fragmented thoughts and memories. The lack of formal punctuation creates a sense of flow, as if the speaker is recalling these events in an unfiltered stream of consciousness. This structure mirrors the way memories often work, especially memories from childhood—they come in bits and pieces, with certain details standing out while others are left unclear or unexamined. The disjointedness of the poem’s structure reinforces the theme of confusion and detachment, as the speaker looks back on the funeral with both clarity and uncertainty.

Ultimately, "Funeral" captures the strange intersection of the mundane and the profound that occurs when death is processed through a child’s perspective. The speaker’s fixation on details like what was eaten or the airplane overhead, rather than on the emotional significance of the funeral, emphasizes the distance between the rituals of death and the personal experience of it. Creeley presents death not as a solemn, easily understood event, but as something that is filtered through everyday life, where children peer through bushes at planes and wonder why their grandmother was "stacked" in the sitting room. Through its simplicity and attention to small details, the poem evokes the bewildering, often confusing way we navigate loss, particularly when we are young and unable to fully grasp its meaning.

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