“In Departing Light”
“In Departing Light” rules out the inherency of the dread of death: “ She’s very calm./If you live long enough it isn’t death you fear/but what life can still do. And she appears to know this/ somewhere.” Robert Gray’s observations conjecture that his mother is not frazzled by her imminent demise which is mirrored in her advanced age. Therefore, the mother appreciates that she will ultimately perish, but she does not refute the reality. The mother’s composure is a pointer of her poise which rules out any fright regarding her subsequent non-existence. Seemingly, aging calls into focus the intensity of the Death Instinct.
“Harbour Dusk”
“Harbour Dusk” incarnates a melancholic mood: “Away off, through the strung Bridge, a sky of mulberry/and orange chiffon. Mauve-grey, each sloven sail –/like nursing sisters in a deep corridor, some melancholy;/or nuns, going to an evening confessional.” Robert Gray’s forlorn attitude renders dusk a disconsolate manifestation that actuates the abandonment of the harbor. The yachts underscore the desolateness of the harbor because they sail as if they are heading to ‘an evening confessional.’ The harbor transfigures into a crestfallen habitation during the husk. The dusk proclaims a depressed closure of the day.
