Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Richard Hugo's poem "Graves at Mukilteo" is a meditation on memory, decay, and the passage of time, set in a cemetery that serves as a haunting metaphor for the way we deal with the remnants of the past. Hugo, a poet known for his deep engagement with place and history, brings his characteristic blend of irony and melancholy to this exploration of a neglected burial ground, where the lives commemorated by the gravestones have slipped into obscurity and disorder.

The poem opens with a simple yet profound observation: "We come for nothing but we read the stones." This statement suggests an act of pilgrimage or a visit made with no clear purpose other than to confront the past, represented by the gravestones. The names on the stones—Laroway, Wong, the baby Rose—are the first glimpses into the lives of those buried here, each name carrying its own story. The epitaph "Budded On Earth To Bloom In Heaven" evokes a sense of innocence and loss, particularly in the case of the baby, Rose. Yet, the poem immediately shifts from this moment of sentiment to a more unsettling reflection on the nature of graves and the passage of time.

Hugo imagines what might happen if one were to dig up the graves, suggesting that "if the last thing to survive, the bones I guess, were bones instead of dirt," the reality would be one of confusion and disorder. The bones are "all mixed up," a grim reminder that time has a way of erasing distinctions and identities. The bones that once belonged to Rosie are now indistinguishable from those of someone else, perhaps "Japanese." This mixing of remains suggests a breakdown of the neat categories by which we attempt to organize and remember the dead, as well as the futility of trying to maintain clear boundaries between identities and histories over time.

The poem continues with a reflection on the cemetery's setting, where "grass is growing on the graves the way it should in poems," but this idyllic image is disrupted by the presence of power lines that "slice the sky in blue rectangles." The sea, which might be expected to add a sense of majesty or wildness to the scene, is instead described as tame and uneventful, "never wild between these islands." Hugo subverts the traditional expectations of a poetic or romanticized landscape, instead presenting a world that is mundane, even disappointing. The absence of "dolphin herds" or "blackfish or convenient danger" further emphasizes the ordinariness of the setting, stripping it of the grandeur that might dignify the lives of those buried there.

Hugo's tone becomes more cynical as he discusses the town's plans to "put the stones in order, cut the grass, reinforce the mortar." These efforts to tidy up the cemetery are complicated by the fact that "the offspring of the dead are scattered and their O.K. hard to get." The disconnect between the living and the dead is stark; those who might care for these graves are far away, physically and perhaps emotionally. The mention of "Rosie's doll is rumored in Tibet" and "Lila's hoard could make a pack of trouble" adds a sense of absurdity and distance, as if the lives once tied to this place have become almost mythical, their belongings and stories scattered across the globe.

The poem reaches its poignant conclusion with a reflection on the state of the cemetery and the town's indifference. The cemetery is "so out of way" that it has become a place where the sheriff might find a "stolen car abandoned," a site for petty crime rather than reverence. The image of "a boy will get his first in the tall grass back of Laroway and Wong" adds a layer of transgression and loss of innocence to the scene, where the markers of the dead "spall," or crumble, and the mayor "regrets the dead can be this derelict." The dead, it seems, have been abandoned not just by their descendants but by the town itself, left to decay along with their gravestones.

In the final lines, Hugo reflects on the ultimate futility of human efforts to memorialize and maintain the past. The "disease was motto and the gold beyond ours" speaks to the idea that the values and aspirations of the past have become meaningless in the present. The fifty years that have passed have done little to preserve the memory of those buried here; instead, they have only highlighted the impermanence of life and the inevitability of decay. The poem ends on a note of resignation: "Today we come for nothing but we read the sea and wait." The act of reading the sea, rather than the stones, suggests a shift in focus from the tangible markers of the past to the vast, unending flow of time, which erases all distinctions and leaves only the quiet, indifferent presence of nature.

"Graves at Mukilteo" is a powerful meditation on the themes of memory, decay, and the inevitable passage of time. Hugo’s use of stark imagery and ironic tone creates a sense of disillusionment with the ways in which we attempt to memorialize the past, highlighting the futility of such efforts in the face of nature's indifference and the disintegration of human connections. The poem serves as a reminder that, ultimately, all that remains are fragments of stories and the fading traces of lives once lived.

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