Essay Questions

Who is Mr. Bones?

Mr. Bones appears in many poems and he often has conversations with Henry about the meaning of life and about what is truly important in life. From the poems, it is clear Mr. Bones has a great deal of power over Henry and can also control the people in Henry’s life. Mr. Bones also can decide who lives and who dies and how they will die. He is also associated with pain, illness and longing and desperation. After taking all this into consideration, we can reach the conclusion that Mr. Bones is used here as a personification of death.

What could cause the pain in the poem "Dream Song 29’’?

The narrator of the poem, Henry, talks about the unbearable pain he is feeling. He describes the pain as crushing his heart and leaving him unable to live a proper life. The pain is not temporary as the narrator is sure it would last even if he were to live a thousand years. The pain is associated with a woman and the narrator admits that in an attempt to get rid of the pain, he killed the woman and cut her body and hid the pieces. The woman here could stand for an unrequited love or maybe for a betrayal coming from a loved one. The act of killing the person could mean that Henry did everything he could to get rid of the pain.

What does the narrator want to transmit though the word "bored’’ in the poem "Dream Song 14’’?

Those whole poem "Dream Song 14’’ relies on explaining why it is bad to be bored and also it contains a list of things the narrator no longer feels entertaining. The narrator is trapped in an eternal state of boredom and he has to watch as other people achieve happiness and satisfaction through different activities. The boredom described here is more than just simple lack of activity because it also affects the spirit of the narrator. In a way, the boredom described here is actually the absence of the desire to live and the complete incapability to feel happiness.