I Am Pleased to Tell You
I Am Pleased to Tell You - meaning Summary
Poetry Outlives the Body
The poem imagines the medieval poet Rumi returning through memory and poetry, despite death. Addressing Death directly, the speaker argues that physical absence is not final: a poet's words can still enter the living world and create fellowship among reader, tree, and remembered writer. Its calm, playful defiance presents art and shared attention as forces that exceed mortality.
Read Complete AnalysesMr. Death, I am pleased to tell you, there are rifts in your long black coat. Today Rumi (obit. 1273) came visiting, and not for the first time. True he didn’t speak with his tongue but from memory, and whether he was short or tall I still don’t know. But he was as real at the tree I was under. Just because something’s physical doesn’t mean it’s the greatest. He offered a poem or two, then sauntered on. I sat awhile feeling content and feeling contentment in the tree also. Isn’t everything in the world shared? And one of the poems contained a tree, so of course the tree felt included. That’s Rumi, who has no trouble slipping out of your long coat, oh Mr. Death.
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