"The End of Poetry" is the final poem in Ada Limón's sixth book, The Hurting Kind (2022). Limón, considered "one of America's preeminent poets" by Publishers Weekly and named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2022, takes an ironic approach in this poem: acknowledging poetry's failures. Written in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Hurting Kind grapples with isolation and yearns for connection. In "The End of Poetry," Limón dismisses a long list of commonly "poetic" images and ideas, ending the poem with a desperate plea for human contact. The speaker seems to admit that poetry is a poor substitute for real, tactile human intimacy. Ironically, though, Limón says that this was the poem that allowed her to break her anxiety-induced writer's block and create the book despite the pandemic: acknowledging what her writing couldn't do allowed her to continue what it could do.
Limón uses run-on syntax in this poem, which is one long sentence spanning twenty-one lines. She includes veiled imagery of nature, and references to patriotism and tragedy both personal and communal. All of the poem's images are tied together with the refrain of the word "enough."
Ada Limón is known for her keen, clear observations of the natural world and human emotions. She is of Mexican-American descent, grew up in Sonoma, California, and lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband and dog. Many of her poems tackle difficult, large-scale issues such as gun violence and climate crisis anxiety, fusing them with intimate personal sentiments to create calls for human connection and compassion. "The End of Poetry" reminds audiences that her poetry is but a tool, an arrow that points readers towards that connection, which we must enact in the real world beyond the page.
