The Ghost Song

Description

Meehan’s meditation on death uses an extraordinary metaphor: to grieve is like learning a song. The dead sing quietly. We inhale their songs from the air and find their meaning only gradually. A mere fragment from the poem’s final sentence is set to music: I (…), learned to breathe your (…) ghost song (…). These seven words are again fragmented into four phrases: I learned your song, I breathe your ghost, I learned to breathe, I breathe song. The mourner teaches the melody in phrases. These phrases are pieced together until the full phrase is heard. This new understanding heralds the true song in a full-blooded climax. When this subsides, we hear that the mourner has learned the words to the Ghost Song.