Tuesday, March 20, 2007

another epitaph

No motion has she now, no force
She neither hears nor sees
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course
With rocks, and stones, and trees.


It's extraordinary what words can do. Lucy, the subject of the epitaph, is reduced to something less than human by the seemingly random list of objects in the last line. Rocks and stones are, perhaps, comprehensible, but why trees? Meanwhile, the slow, heavy rhythm makes you aware of her endless, pointless journey, spinning round and round, only to end where she began.

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