Elegy - Jacquelyn Engel

Posthumous

By  Jean Nordhaus 

 

Would it surprise you to learn

that years beyond your longest winter

you still get letters from your bank, your old

philanthropies, cold flakes drifting

through the mail-slot with your name?

Though it's been a long time since your face

interrupted the light in my door-frame,

and the last tremblings of your voice

have drained from my telephone wire,

from the lists of the likely, your name

is not missing. It circles in the shadow-world

of the machines, a wind-blown ghost. For generosity

will be exalted, and good credit

outlasts death. Caribbean cruises, recipes,

low-interest loans. For you who asked

so much of life, who lived acutely

even in duress, the brimming world

awaits your signature. Cancer and heart disease

are still counting on you for a cure.

B'nai Brith numbers you among the blessed.

They miss you. They want you back.

 

Nordhaus, Jean. "Poetry Magazine." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

Elegy contains three elements: lament, praise, and solace. In “Posthumous” by Jean Nordhaus, it most definitely covers all traditional elements of elegy. Norhaus states in the beginning of her poem that it has been years since this person’s death, yet she is still filled with sorrow. The poet is reminded of this person’s death regularly because the decease is still receiving mail as the “cold flakes [drift] through the mail slot”. She misses this person greatly which portrays the lament part of elegy but Nordhaus comes to realize that “[his or her] name is not missing”. At this point, the poet comes to praise, she  knows that the deceased’s name is “[circling] in the shadow-world of the machines, a wind-blown ghost” and that “good credit outlasts death”. Nordhaus is filled with mourn for her friend’s death but knows that her friend lived a great life. Nordhaus admires her friend for “[living] acutely even in duress” and for “[asking] so much of life”. The deceased offered so much to the world, and the poet knows that he or she had a positive contribution to the world, and the affect will perpetuate for many years to come. As for solace, it is achieved in this poem. Because the poet deeply admires her friend, she is comforted knowing that her friend achieved a great life and her spirit will persist throughout the world. The element is recognized by stating that “they [will miss her]” and want her back which displays that the author has accepted her friend’s death.