Charles Bukowski

Whats the Use of a Title?

Whats the Use of a Title? - meaning Summary

Beauty and Premature Death

Bukowski's poem confronts the idea that the beautiful are fragile and often die young, frequently by suicide or self-destruction. It contrasts vivid, violent endings with the ordinary continuity of life—old men playing checkers in the park—left behind to inhabit an 'ugly' survival. The speaker mourns and wonders at the senselessness of these losses while emphasizing the persistent gap between beauty’s brief intensity and everyday endurance.

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They don't make it, the beautiful die in flame— suicide pills, rat poison, rope, what— ever... they rip their arms off, throw themselves out of windows, they pull their eyes out of the sockets, reject love, reject hate, reject, reject. they don't make it, the beautiful can't endure, they are butterflies, they are doves, they are sparrows, they don't make it. One tall shot of flame while the old men play checkers in the park, one flame, one good flame while the old men play checkers in the park in the sun. the beautiful are found in the edge of a room crumpled into spiders and needles and silence, and we can never understand why they left, they were so beautiful. they don't make it, the beautiful die young and leave the ugly to their ugly lives. lovely and brilliant: life and suicide and death as the old men play checkers in the sun in the park.

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