Goodby Betty, Don’t Remember Me
Goodby Betty, Don’t Remember Me - meaning Summary
Farewell Wrapped in Ironic Blessing
The speaker bids Betty a brisk, even mocking farewell while giving neat instructions for appearance, social life, and lovers. Surface practicality and jaunty tone mask a deeper wish: that in Parisian twilight a specific, intimate moment will occur. That moment, when she pales and kisses at dusk, is meant to demonstrate to Death that Love still exists. The poem balances lighthearted imperatives with a poignant, metaphysical claim about love.
Read Complete Analysesgoodby Betty,don’t remember me pencil your eyes dear and have a good time with the tall tight boys at Tabari’ s,keep your teeth snowy, stick to beer and lime, wear dark,and where your meeting breasts are round have roses darling,it’s all i ask of you— but that when light fails and this sweet profound Paris moves with lovers,two and two bound for themselves,when passionately dusk brings softly down the perfume of the world (and just as smaller stars begin to husk heaven)you,you exactly paled and curled with mystic lips take twilight where i know: proving to Death that Love is so and so.
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