I see, I guess. My "mistake" is to take the advice at face value, rather than as a crie de coeur of a son whose "advice" is not being offered by DT as a universal blueprint for how to approach one's own death. I'm not convinced, but I see the point and don't entirely reject it. It just seems to me to be reading more into the poem than is warranted, perhaps, based on the text alone.
I've always loved the poem for its sounds and craft and windbaggery...but I can't say it's ever struck my soul. It's a song I love for the music, not the meaning. It's a fine and wonderful poem, but it doesn't hold a candle to "Fern Hill," which stands among the truly great poems of all time, on a shelf right beside Wordsworth's mortality ode.
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