A Small Needful Fact

While part of its message concerns the transcendent, symbolic quality of Garner’s death, the poem is based entirely on the particularity of Garner’s life. In the framework of the poem, it is Garner’s individual life, and not his death, that is “needful.” Moreover, the “fact” is a specific aspect of that life: that Garner worked for the Parks and Recreation Horticultural Department. All subsequent imagery is an elaboration of that specificity. The poem is, at its heart, a plea for readers to remember Garner’s distinct personhood and the specificity of his humanity, which are often obscured by social movements—however necessary or altruistic—for which a person’s death becomes a universalizing symbol.

The poem’s specificity is also held in tension with the poet’s decided non-specificity—i.e., the poem’s emphatic approximating and qualifying language: “for some time” (Line 2), “perhaps” (Lines 4, 5), “in all likelihood” (Lines 5, 8), “most likely” (Line 7). This language underscores that many details of Garner’s life remain obscure, but it also reflects the poet’s respect for that obscurity; the poem does not presume definitive knowledge of the person it honors.