Buried

For this assignment, I chose the poem "Buried". There is a short introductory paragraph that helps to explain the origin of the poem- basically, people would have to bury their own dead. The author uses different rhythms in the work to evoke different feelings as the piece progresses. Some shorter passages are anchored in the here and now, describing the difficulty of the work, the heat, the mud and flies that make this heartbreaking task even more difficult, the physical pain from the digging. Interspersed throughout the piece are some single separate lines that seem to drive home the feeling of being forced to do this grim job- they paint a picture of the person who has to dig trying to use the physical labor as a way to temporarily blot out the pain of loss which is always lingering over all his thoughts like background noise that he cannot stand to listen to. Some longer passages deliver up memories of a lost son, the person who will occupy the hole. The memories are happy ones, times of companionship and warmth. The grave digger dreams of the time spent with his son, laughs and quiet moments shared. An innocent memory- that of his son buried under mounds of stuffed animals- jars him back to the reality of his task- the memory is too much like the job the digger must perform in reality. The last of the memory, when he teasingly would call to his son "Where are you?" probably escapes from his lips as he digs, perhaps startling him from his reverie, returning him from happier times to the reality he now faces. The digger thinks back on the time spent with his son, longing for things to be as they were. The last line- "I have to dig"- is again the attempt to do anything to blot out the misery of what he must do and what his life has become.