The Decay of Vanity
Now it is seven years since you were the Queen That crowned my King; and six years since your ghost Left your body cold in my arms as a stone. The for three years I did heart-brokenly Embalm your remains; but after that I let your eye shrink and your body dry, And had forgotten whether you still hung here, Or had gone, with all the old junk, out onto the heap Where scraggy cockerels rake and stab and peer - Till this man loomed up with your shrunken head. He, I see, by the majesty in his stride, Dreams he swept some great queen towards his bed, Yet skulks by me, swagger as he dare: This royal trophy, which, in a world of pride, Makes him your King, makes him my scavenger.
The Decay of Vanity - meaning Summary
Pride Fed by Possession
The poem turns a dead queen into a symbol of love reduced to possession and display. The speaker once treated her body with grief and ceremony, but later neglects it. When another man finds her remains and imagines himself exalted by them, the speaker exposes the emptiness of his pride. Kingship, romance, and masculine status all depend on a decaying, objectified image of the woman.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.