What Care the Dead, for Chanticleer
poem 592
What Care the Dead, for Chanticleer - meaning Summary
Indifference of the Dead
The poem explores death’s indifference to earthly cycles and comforts. Dickinson imagines the dead as unaffected by morning, summer, or winter; sunrise and seasonal change no longer matter to them. Everyday beauties and hardships—birdsong, solstice, heat, cold, spices—are irrelevant once life has ended. The voice reflects on how human attachments and sensations lose their significance in the face of burial and the unchanging condition of the dead.
Read Complete AnalysesWhat care the Dead, for Chanticleer What care the Dead for Day? ‘Tis late your Sunrise vex their face And Purple Ribaldry of Morning Pour as blank on them As on the Tier of Wall The Mason builded, yesterday, And equally as cool What care the Dead for Summer? The Solstice had no Sun Could waste the Snow before their Gate And knew One Bird a Tune Could thrill their Mortised Ear Of all the Birds that be This One beloved of Mankind Henceforward cherished be What care the Dead for Winter? Themselves as easy freeze June Noon as January Night As soon the South her Breeze Of Sycamore or Cinnamon Deposit in a Stone And put a Stone to keep it Warm Give Spices unto Men
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