2. Explication

A Book of Music
by Jack Spicer

Coming at an end, the lovers
Are exhausted like two swimmers. Where
Did it end? There is no telling. No love is
Like an ocean with the dizzy procession of the waves' boundaries
From which two can emerge exhausted, nor long goodbye
Like death.
Coming at an end. Rather, I would say, like a length
Of coiled rope
Which does not disguise in final twists of its lengths
Its endings.
But, you will say, we loved
And some parts of us loved
And the rest of us will remain
Two persons. Yes,
Poetry ends like a rope.


This poem in particular struck me. Overall the imagery of an ending love and its relation to poetry was what solely expressed the ideas. In the first two lines the general feel of the poem is set. The lovers are "exhausted like swimmers", meaning they cannot go on any further. The poem seems to be saying after love is gone it is so "exhausting" that one cannot go back. The next few lines describe how love has no boundaries or certain endings. Death is brought up which, morbidly, is thought of as the ultimate ending. The poem states that there is no "long goodbye" in love, it is not definite. There is a kind of comfort in the idea of there being a definite ending and the speaker of this poem is expressing the lack of this. Metaphorically love is compared to a coiled rope, which makes perfect sense. When one is in love they are entwined with another, like the coil of the rope, but as the love comes to an end the lovers go in two seperate ways, like that of a rope. A coiled rope is actually two strands which at their end go in different directions. The poem explains that having loved the parts that did love will go away and rest will remain, the aspect that lovers are ultimately two different people. The last line states "Poetry ends like a rope.", which again makes perfect sense. Poetry has no complete defintion. It can be interpreted in several different ways. A poem my also end going in different directions. Poems take several aspects and combined them into one, yet ultimately it is the several diverse aspects, such as imagery, line breaks and narration, that make up the actual poetry.