16 pages • 32 minutes read
The Dead
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Grief and Bereavement
As a poem about the dead told from the first-person plural perspective of the living, “The Dead” necessarily carries a message about grief, loss, and the transition made when a loved one passes away. The act of “unburden[ing]” (Line 2) refers to the dead, but it could also be interpreted as a parallel of the living slowly leaving behind the damage and discord of loss. Throughout the seemingly objective account are references and motifs to the living’s connection with these dead people: letters, a home, and stories about the past. The speaker’s very objectivity could be a sign of disassociation, in which the bereaved distance themselves from the reality of grief, just as the dead can no longer really interact with the living through anything but memory. The only hint of the speaker’s true loss comes at the end of the poem, when the unsatisfying presence of the dead is contrasted with their buoyantly lively former existence. The dead haunt the house loudly in ways that show disconnection from the speaker, but the noise they generated when alive was a sign of communion and fellow-feeling: “[W]hen we were children […] they stayed up / drinking all night in the kitchen” (Lines 13-14). In this moment, the speaker breaks the wall between themselves and the humanity of the dead, remembering the rhythms that used to permeate the everyday.
Although no context is given for the inception of this poem, it’s notable that both the dead and the living are two distinct collectives: “they wake us” (Line 12). This could reflect a large-scale loss, such as a war; or, it could reflect the speaker’s need to believe their lost loved one is not alone. In either case, there is the pervasive hope that when we die, we do not exist in stationary solitude. Instead, we are surrounded by others who have gone before us and with whom we can come together in some semblance of human connection (“They tell each other stories” [Line 10]). This illustrates the beliefs often associated with grief and bereavement, which are used as a tool through which to cope with loss and find a way forward.
Growth and Change
The poem juxtaposes the passage of time with the stagnant immobility of the dead. Death is, of course, the ultimate change that comes at the end of one’s life, creating a sharp divide between before and after. Here, the dead struggle with the fact that the world from which they came is still moving forward while they cannot.
The speaker shows the dead coming home to examine relics of their past. But while this seems to be a description of movement, what the dead are truly interested in is freezing time. They “take out the old photographs” (Line 3), which capture one moment in one place for eternity. The dead look at the hands of the living to divine the “cracked and yellow” (Line 5) future—the dead are free of “their fears, / their worries for us” (Lines 2-3) and so their interest in the future is the brittle and shallow act of fortunetelling. When they visit their old homes, they retreat to the memorabilia stored in the attics, reliving select moments of the past stored in letters and unable to forge new memories with the living residents of the houses.
As the poem comes to a close, the speaker reveals that they have undergone a significant change: they’ve grown up. Though it’s unclear how long the speaker has been observing the dead, there is a clear sense that the speaker has changed while the dead have not. However, there is a poignant connection established between the living speaker and the dead they chronicle. Just as the dead are “insatiable / for signs of their love” (Lines 8-9), haunting their former homes with obsessive nostalgia, so too does the speaker experience the same feeling when observing the dead, comparing their behavior now to how they were “when we were children” (Line 13).
Life and Living
The poem is driven by the dead’s need to both remember how it felt to be alive, and to recreate some semblance of life in their current state. The opening action of “com[ing] down to the river to drink” (Line 1) describes community. Although the purpose of the river is subject to interpretation, what’s consistent in this moment is that the dead are moving toward it, seemingly driven to this liminal place to find companionship with each other, access to the living, or a way home.
As the dead approach their destinations, they reach for remnants of the past: photographs and letters—repositories of memory and emotional response that remind the dead of how they felt in these moments when they were alive. Their journey leaving the river and re-entering their homes reaches its apex with the line, “insatiable / for signs of their love” (Lines 8-9). The dead quest to rediscover love—a key domain of the living that the dead can no longer feel the way they once did, though they remember what the sensation was like.
Toward the end of the poem, the speaker reveals that when alive, these dead people used to gather, drink, and talk late into the night—evenings of togetherness and affection where they felt truly alive. While the dead try to replicate these times of kinship—they “come to the river to drink” (Line 1) and “tell each other stories” (Line 10)—nothing they do comes close to approximating the relationships that sustained them in life. From this, the poem highlights the importance of embracing these moments while we can.
Unlock all 16 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 9,150+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: