Failure of Communion

isolation melancholic reflective

Failure of Communion - meaning Summary

Intimacy Meets Inevitable Distance

Judith Wright's 'Failure of Communion' examines the persistent gap between people despite efforts at closeness. It presents human connection as fragile and incomplete: small bridges of sight, touch, and speech attempt to link individuals but inevitably leave openings. The poem argues that silence and inner separateness persist even in intimate moments, portraying loneliness as a universal, structural part of human relationships rather than a temporary failure.

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What is the space between, enclosing us in one united person, yet dividing each alone. Frail bridges cross from eye to eye, from flesh to flesh, from word to word: the net is gapped at every mesh, and this each human knows: however close our touch or intimate our speech, silences, spaces reach most deep, and will not close.