I drowned in the fire of having you,
I burned In the river of not having you […]
In this quotation—which opens Pinsky’s poem—sets the tone for the remainder of the poem. Speaking of his intense and burning love for an unnamed woman, the narrator explains how their love is so intense that it feels like fire when they’re together, but it also feels like drowning when they’re apart. The imagery depicted in this quotation speaks to the intense desire these two feel for each other. The use of drownings and burnings as metaphors for their love exemplifies how the narrator feels so passionately for his beloved that he is quite literally consumed with a burning, searing love—both when they’re together and when they’re apart.
Someday far down that corridor of horror the future
Someone who buys this picture of you for the frame
At a stall in a dwindled city will study your face […]
In this quotation, the narrator describes the intense horror of having lost his love to the depths of Hell. He explains that, someday in the near or distant future, someone will obtain a picture of her and will study her face, growing more and more infatuated with her beauty and mystery. The narrator bemoans this admiration and cannot stand the thought of another man studying and obsessing over her picture. It can be concluded that this stanza really references the narrator’s love forming a new relationship with another man. The narrator cannot bear this thought and so imagines that the woman has been banned to the depths of Hell for her misdeed.
At the end of the story,
When the plague has arrived,
The performance can begin.
In this opening stanza, the narrator refers to the end of the world—brought on by an angry and disgusted God. His reference to the “end of the story” refers to the end of humanity’s story. He explains that plague will come upon the earth, which will begin a spectacular “performance” that will ultimately culminate in the destruction of the world and humanity. In this way, the narrator draws parallels between God’s destruction of the world and a performance. He likens the start to an opening ceremony and in this way perhaps suggests that the end of the world is merely an activity—a show—for God.
But someone I know is dying—
And though one might say glibly, “everyone is,”
The different pace makes the difference absolute.
In this rather sobering stanza, the narrator explains that someone he knows is dying. Though he recognizes that everyone is dying, all the time, he explains that there is a distinct difference between an understanding that we all must die and the realization that it’s going to come much sooner than realized. The narrator references the “different pace” of dying, which suggests that his friend is dying much faster than is normal—possibly of cancer or some similar terminal illness. This stanza therefore captures the way that terminal illnesses or quick, unexpected deaths can shake our world, even though we all understanding that every day living is a day we are pushed closer to our deaths. He explains that a change of pace—meaning an event that propels us or someone we know closer to death than previously thought—makes this change even more apparent and heartbreaking.
