"body" by James Merrill

     James Merrill was born on March 3rd, 1926 in New York City. He went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and become a distinguished poet, although he did dabble in some other literary types, such as fiction. He died on February 6th, 1995 at the age of 68.

Look closely at the letters. Can you see,
entering (stage right), then floating full,
then heading off—so soon—
how like a little kohl-rimmed moon
o plots her course from b to d

—as y, unanswered, knocks at the stage door?
Looked at too long, words fail,
phase out. Ask, now that body shines
no longer, by what light you learn these lines
and what the b and d stood for

     In James Merrill's poem, "body" we see larger than life descriptions about the body it self and the moon. Merrill uses the moon to represent the cycle of life from birth to death. In line 5 we see that he refers to the "o" as the letter between "b and d" this is representative of the cycle of life, b represents the start and d the end. It is also interesting that he chooses body as representative of this life cycle, because Merrill's own body is very much failing at this time due to his infection with AIDS. It is interesting that such a simple word could represent so much to one man and without a little research the word would mean little when you read this poem. Therefore I purpose that diction however simple can be affected by the experiences of the person. I say this because, although his poem is something you can relate to, you cannot fully digest its meaning and his use of this particular language without first understanding what the man himself was going through. Imagine your immune system disappearing one day and leaving you to fight off diseases with a fist full of resiliency, you wouldn't last long, but to get back on track his description of the word body opens up the whole of our life cycle as living and breathing beings. The way he describes how "o" plots our course, because it is the entirety of our lives is just beautiful. Or how he mentions "y" being this lonely part who simply, "knocks at the stage door?". This leads me to believe that y is somehow the afterlife or heaven, or whatever you would like to call it. Even with the short and simplistic format of this poem we see a language that we can relate to, but it is still deep enough to evoke further thought and contemplation. Now, we should also touch on his use of stage directions, obviously this is describing our lives being somewhat like a performance on stage i.e. we get our ten minutes of fame and then we slowly fade, just as Merrill eventually fades and succumbs to death. James Merrill is sure to get you thinking about his words, even if not just analyzing the language of the poem, the message that radiates from this poem is powerful and worthy of being heard.