By Such and Such an Offering

By Such and Such an Offering - meaning Summary

Ritual Reduced to Formula

This short poem skeptically addresses how routine offerings and formulaic gestures flatten real human experience. The speaker names vague, ceremonial acts—"such and such an offering"—and suggests that the living, intricate "web of live" is transformed into tidy public records like "martyrs albums." The tone feels ironic and detached, implying that public commemoration simplifies lives into predictable, consumable patterns rather than preserving their complexity.