I almost missed the wonderful pun at the end. The first time I read the sonnet, I confess I felt a tinge of disappointment. The poem had such a good premise that I felt slightly let down by the things chosen to tell the dead; I guess I was looking for more creative and interesting details than, “The human race is not improvable”, “Our leaders shuffle bribes”, etc. And in contrast to what others said about the lack of sentimentality, I felt the closing couplet was sentimental. But then I got the pun! It made the poem for me.
|