Finale
Finale - meaning Summary
Love and Mortality Intertwined
The poem addresses Matilde in a compact, intimate meditation on illness, vulnerability, and the sustaining power of a loved one. The speaker alternates between images of feverish sleep and hospital surroundings and tender domestic scenes in which Matilde’s presence restores meaning and life. The closing lines present a paradox: the speaker feels vast and renewed within Matilde’s small hands, suggesting love as both shelter and a final affirmation against loss.
Read Complete AnalysesMatilde, years or days sleeping, feverish, here or there, gazing off, twisting my spine, bleeding true blood, perhaps I awaken or am lost, sleeping: hospital beds, foreign windows, white uniforms of the silent walkers, the clumsiness of feet. And then, these journeys and my sea of renewal: your head on the pillow, your hands floating in the light, in my light, over my earth. It was beautiful to live when you lived! The world is bluer and of the earth at night, when I sleep enormous, within your small hands.
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