That the Night Come

That the Night Come - meaning Summary

Yearning for Glorious Death

The poem sketches a woman who rejects ordinary contentment in favor of an intense longing for a heroic death. Her spirit cannot endure "the common good of life," so she stages her living as if it were a triumphant wedding day—full of banners, trumpets and cannon—to hurry time toward night, a metaphor for death. The short poem contrasts mundane life with an appetite for dramatic, exalted ending.