The Grapevine
The Grapevine - meaning Summary
Identity Through Mutual Perception
The poem explores how selves and others define one another through observation and misattribution. Speakers reflect on how being seen alters identity, how causes and consequences are tangled, and how knowledge remains partial—some truths about companions remain inaccessible. The closing question links recognition, mortality, and survival: who must die for others to know them? The tone registers uncertainty about causation, knowledge, and the ethics of living through others.
Read Complete AnalysesOf who we and all they are You all now know. But you know After they began to find us out we grew Before they died thinking us the causes Of their acts. Now we’ll not know The truth of some still at the piano, though They often date from us, causing These changes we think we are. We don’t care Though, so tall up there In young air. But things get darker as we move To ask them: Whom must we get to know To die, so you live and we know?
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