He knew in the hour he died
That his heart had never spoken
In eighty years of days.
The poem begins with a sudden and surprising characterization of the grandfather. We learn right away that the grandfather did not tend to express his emotions—a strange comment with which to begin an elegy. Yet, we also learn that the grandfather himself realized this while on his deathbed. This makes the poem inherently tragic, as it suggests that the grandfather's life was in some way wrongly lived. It also develops tension, forcing the reader to wonder how he realized this, and what the effects of this realization were.
Memorial is denied
The speaker continues to subvert the traditional expectations of the elegy. He flatly admits that it is difficult to mourn or memorialize someone who refused to express themselves while they were alive. This is true for the mourners at the funeral just as much as it is true for the poet attempting to eulogize the dead. It becomes clear that one effect of the grandfather's reticence is that those who loved him struggle to know what to say or feel during emotional moments. Those attending the services were not moved to demonstrable displays of excessive sorrow or grief. Instead, the best that can be said is they “mourned him in their fashion.” Equally, the speaker mourns the father in his own fashion. While traditional memorial is denied, the poem serves as the speaker's way of capturing his grandfather's complexities.
Many hours he had seen
The stars in their drunken dancing
Through the burning-glass of his mind
And sober knew the green
Boughs of heaven folding
The winter world in their hand.
As the grandfather aged, he retained his close connection to the natural world. He became blind, but he continued to see the stars and sky in his mind. This is a dignified description of aging, providing more evidence for the idea that the speaker is deeply conflicted about his departed grandfather. It also shows that, despite his reticence, the grandfather had an intense inner life—his mind had the power of a "burning-glass"—making his refusal to share these feelings all the more tragic.
When taken literally, the Speaker's use of "drunken" and "sober" in this quote may suggest that the grandfather was a drinker, as Baxter was himself. However, it may be more likely that this section does not refer to literal drinking but instead uses the metaphor of intoxication to emphasize the intensity of the grandfather's internal life.
And the naked thought fell back
To a house by the waterside
And the leaves the wind had shaken
Then for a child’s sake:
To the waves all night awake
With the dark mouths of the dead.
The grandfather returns to memories of his childhood while on his deathbed. He has a "naked thought"—one that is unaffected by norms or expectations—of a childhood home on the water. We see the grandfather as he was as a child, and it is clear that he had a typically innocent and intense childhood. His boyhood was full of joy, as he saw leaves falling and imagined that it was for his own sake, and fear, as he pictured the sea taking countless lives. This is likely what causes the grandfather to realize that he never expressed his emotions. Looking back on his life, and the realization it prompts, causes the grandfather to have a moment of peace as he dies: "his heart was unafraid" in the end.
