"It Was Not Death, for I Stood Up"It was not Death, for I stood up,

And all the Dead, lie down--

It was not Night, for all the Bells

Put out their Tongues, for Noon.


It was not Frost, for on my Flesh

I felt Siroccos--crawl--

Nor Fire--for just my marble feet

Could keep a Chancel, cool--


And yet, it tasted, like them all,

The Figures I have seen

Set orderly, for Burial,

Reminded me, of mine--


As if my life were shaven,

And fitted to a frame,

And could not breathe without a key,

And 'twas like Midnight, some--


When everything that ticked--has stopped--

And space stares all around--

Or Grisly frosts--first Autumn morns,

Repeal the Beating Ground--


But, most, like Chaos--Stopless--cool--

Without a Chance, or Spar--

Or even a Report of Land--

To justify--Despair.

Analysis/ Comment

This poem displays a mixture of emotions that include: depression, psychological distress, despair, horror, etc. that not even the poet herself really understands what she is feeling. In fact, the first two stanzas describe her confusion towards her mixture of feelings. Then in the third stanza, she begins to comprehend slowly in a funeral that probably reflected her “death” too. Next, she begins feeling isolated, lonely and abandoned. And at last, she decides that she is hopeless and that she would never get over her desperation, because, if at first she had the chance and rejected, at this point, not even death would cancel it (paradox).

* The 1^st line of the third stanza is a synaesthetic image that simply describes the different aspects of her life.

* The paradox of the last verse of the poem is also an irony. The ups and downs and the doubts of one’s identity occur to teens more than others. Although despair “seems” impossible to be recovered from, it’s always worth trying to get over it.

The ups and downs and the doubts of one’s identity occur more often to teens than to others.
Although despair “seems” impossible to be recovered from, it is always worth trying to get over it.

Links

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/notdeath.html