Graveyard Blues

“Graveyard Blues” is written in the literary context of the elegy, which is a melancholy poem that laments the death of someone, but which ends in a consolation to the reader. “Graveyard Blues” follows this form and carries these characteristics. A slow-moving poem built on tones and moods of sadness, the poem is told largely in retrospection, in which the speaker remembers their mother’s burial. Moments of melancholy are invoked with phrases like “It rained” (Line 1) and lines like “The suck of mud at our feet was a hollow sound” (Line 3). These phrases set the scene as dark and full of sadness.

The elegy, which typically reflects a death or a loss, is a very popular form throughout literature and poetry and it takes many forms. “Michiko Dead” by Jack Gilbert is another contemporary take on the elegy. Like “Graveyard Blues,” “Michiko Dead” is told in the aftermath of a loved one who has died–in this case a partner. However, unlike “Graveyard Blues,” “Michiko Dead” does not follow a narrative, but instead follows a metaphor of a man carrying a heavy, unwieldy box–a box which symbolizes his grief. In both poems, however, grief is strikingly present. Another contemporary example of elegy is Mary Jo Bang’s “You Were You Are Elegy.” This poem serves as a contrast to “Graveyard Blues.” While “Graveyard Blues” is written in formal and structural restraint, “You Were You Are Elegy” is a free verse poem spoken in the voice of a speaker almost spilling over with love and grief. The contemporary elegy does not follow any set parameters other than being a poem about death.