Drumnotes
Drumnotes - meaning Summary
Remembering the Dead
The poem addresses a drummer called Danny and urges him to "drum for the dead," using the drum as a metaphor for memory. It names a range of deceased figures—political leaders, soldiers, writers—alongside vivid images of decay to emphasize mortality and the equalizing power of death. The recurring call to "drum on your remembering heart" links communal ritual, personal remembrance, and the persistence of memory amid loss.
Read Complete AnalysesDays of the dead men, Danny. Drum for the dead, drum on your remembering heart. Jaurès, a great love-heart of France, a slug of lead in the red valves. Kitchener of Khartoum, tall, cold, proud, a shark's mouthful. Franz Josef, the old man of forty haunted kingdoms, in a tomb with the Hapsburg fathers, moths eating a green uniform to tatters, worms taking all and leaving only bones and gold buttons, bones and iron crosses. Jack London, Jim Riley, Verhaeren, riders to the republic of dreams. Days of the dead, Danny. Drum on your remembering heart.
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