Three Things
Three Things - meaning Summary
Desire, Loss, and Memory
The poem gives voice to a washed-up bone that pleads with Death to restore three lost experiences. It recalls the comforts of motherhood, the fulfillment of romantic/sexual union, and an ordinary morning shared with a loved one. Each wish is framed as vividly desired yet irrevocably gone, and the repeating image of the wave-whitened bone underlines absence and the persistence of memory despite physical loss.
Read Complete Analyses`O cruel Death, give three things back,' Sang a bone upon the shore; `A child found all a child can lack, Whether of pleasure or of rest, Upon the abundance of my breast': A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind. `Three dear things that women know,' Sang a bhone upon the shore; `A man if I but held him so When my body was alive Found all the pleasure that life gave': A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind. `The third thing that I think of yet,' Sang a bone upon the shore, `Is that morning when I met Face to face my rightful man And did after stretch and yawn': A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind.
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