Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"The Funeral" by Norman Dubie is a poignant reflection on memory, loss, and the intimate moments that define our relationships with loved ones. This poem narrates the recollection of a young child's experiences with an aunt who has passed away, juxtaposing vibrant life memories with the stark reality of death. Dubie's evocative imagery and the tender recounting of past experiences offer a deep emotional resonance that highlights the impact of personal loss.

The poem begins with the narrator recounting a seemingly trivial yet intimate memory with their youngest aunt. The image of standing naked in a brook, playful and unburdened, allows minnows to nibble at her toes. This scene, full of life and innocence, is a stark contrast to the cold, harsh reality of her funeral. The description "It felt like the zero in brook ice" powerfully evokes a sense of cold emptiness, a void left by her passing, reflecting the numbing impact of grief.

Dubie uses the springhouse as a setting to layer the narrative with textures of everyday life. The detailed imagery of butter in small bricks, the ermine-like mold on the cheese, and onions used to cleanse the air craft a sensory-rich scene that vividly recalls the life of the aunt. These elements are not just details of a setting but serve as metaphors for preservation and decay, mirroring life's cycles.

The mention of butter colored with marigolds, plucked from the marsh, introduces a natural element that signifies beauty and transience. The reference to miner's-candles and the task of carrying offal's pail to where a fox meditates expands the world of the poem, showing a life intimately connected with nature and the cycles within it. These elements enhance the thematic depth, showing the intersection of life and death, and the continuance of natural cycles amidst human loss.

The final stanza shifts sharply to the burial, with the adult conversations heard by the narrator as a child. The uncle's comment, "The cancer ate her like horse piss eats deep snow," is jarring and crude yet strikingly vivid. It conveys the brutal reality of the disease and the pain it inflicts, juxtaposing the natural, even whimsical, decay of snow with the destructive force of cancer.

Overall, "The Funeral" captures the complex emotions surrounding death—nostalgia, pain, and the indelible impressions left by those we lose. Dubie's use of nature and its processes as a backdrop to human mortality and memory serves to universalize the experience of grief, connecting it to the broader, inexorable patterns of life and decay. The poem leaves the reader reflecting on the beauty of fleeting moments and the inevitable passage of time, underscoring the bittersweet nature of remembering loved ones after they are gone.

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...