Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Promises: 5. Country Burying (1919)," Robert Penn Warren explores themes of memory, loss, and the passage of time, using the setting of a rural burial to meditate on the nature of life’s transience and the rituals that accompany death. The poem is infused with a sense of distance, both physical and emotional, as the speaker recalls an afternoon from his youth spent waiting outside a funeral—an event that serves as a backdrop for larger reflections on family, identity, and the inevitable movement from the past toward the future.

The poem begins by situating the reader in a familiar rural landscape: "Oak grove, bare ground, little white church there, / Bone-white in that light." The imagery is vivid, capturing the starkness of the scene in the summer light. The "dust-pale green" of the oak leaves contrasts with the "bone-white" church, emphasizing the simplicity and timelessness of the setting. This is a place the speaker has seen "a thousand times," suggesting that the small country church and its surrounding oak grove are deeply embedded in his memory. The scene is both ordinary and monumental, evoking a sense of familiarity while also serving as a symbol for life's recurring rituals—especially those that mark endings.

As the speaker sits "at grove-edge" beyond the "disarray" of parked cars, he is detached from the funeral taking place inside. The cars—Chevrolet, T-Model, Hudson—are described as waiting "patient as mules," mirroring the speaker’s own passive role. The automobiles, like the speaker, are not involved in what is happening inside the church; they are merely present, enduring the heat of the day. The sense of waiting is palpable, underscoring the feeling of being disconnected from the emotions or significance of the funeral. For the cars, and for the speaker, "waiting is all they have come to do."

The speaker reflects on how the funeral has cost him "a boy's afternoon"—a precious time when "summer's so short, oh, so short." This complaint, though minor, speaks to the larger theme of loss and time’s fleeting nature. The speaker's mother has brought him to the burial of someone "she'd scarce known," suggesting that the funeral is more a matter of duty than deep personal grief. The speaker’s ambivalence is evident in his questioning of whether his mother’s respect for the deceased is "enough of a thing" to justify the disruption of his afternoon. This distance—between the living and the dead, between the speaker’s present and the somber ritual of the funeral—reflects the emotional detachment that runs throughout the poem.

The speaker's lack of connection to the deceased is further emphasized when he acknowledges that "it's no matter now who lies in the church." The person being buried is a figure from the past, someone who might have come into town "in buggy or Ford" to swap butter or eggs—an old woman with "gnarled hands in black mittens" and a face "yellow as a gourd." These details paint a picture of rural life, where such figures were part of the community but may have remained on its fringes, known more by their appearances and routines than by any deeper understanding.

As the funeral concludes, the speaker and his mother leave, traveling down the road as dusk falls and "light levels in fields." This movement away from the burial site marks a transition from the immediate experience of death back into the flow of life, as they pass "from what is, toward what will be, fulfilled." The road becomes a symbol for time itself, winding away from the past and toward an uncertain future. The speaker hints at his own future experiences, mentioning "dawn in strange rooms" and "foreign faces"—a reference to the broader journey of life and the inevitable changes it brings.

Despite this forward momentum, the speaker acknowledges the pull of the past, imagining what it would be like to "come back, and come back where that place is." The oak grove and the white church remain fixed in his memory, a place he might "enter" again, though for what purpose is unclear. His description of the church’s interior—"the odor of varnish, hymnals stacked on a chair, / Light religiously dim by painted paper on window glass"—evokes a sense of nostalgia for the familiar, even as the memory of it feels distant and faint.

The poem closes with the sound of a fly, buzzing persistently in the church. The fly's buzzing is both mundane and deeply symbolic, representing the inescapable presence of death and decay, even in places of worship. The speaker’s frustration—"Why doesn't that fly stop buzzing—stop buzzing up there!"—echoes his underlying discomfort with the funeral, the passing of time, and the inevitability of death. The fly, a small and seemingly insignificant creature, becomes a reminder that life continues even as rituals are performed for the dead. Its presence underscores the tension between the quiet solemnity of the funeral and the restless, unresolved emotions that lie beneath.

In "Promises: 5. Country Burying (1919)," Robert Penn Warren reflects on the tension between life and death, memory and the present, and the rituals that mark these transitions. The rural burial scene, with its oak grove, white church, and waiting cars, serves as a backdrop for the speaker's meditation on the passage of time and the disconnection between the living and the dead. Through vivid imagery and a contemplative tone, the poem captures the complexity of grief, the quiet endurance of life, and the persistence of memory, even as time moves inexorably forward. The buzzing fly, in the end, becomes a symbol for the unfinished business of life, always present, always reminding us of what remains unresolved.

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