Question

Bag Of Bones

What good luck!
She has found his bones.
The skull is also in the bag
the bag in her hand
like all other bags
in all other trembling hands.
His bones, like thousands of bones
in the mass graveyard,
his skull, not like any other skull,

Two eyes or holes
with which he listened to music
that told his own story,
a nose
that never knew clean air,
a mouth, open like a chasm,
was not like that when he kissed her
there, quietly,
not in this place
noisy with skulls and bones and dust
dug up with questions:

What does it mean to die all this death
in a place where the darkness plays all this silence?
What does it mean to meet your loved ones now
with all of these hollow places?
To give back to your mother
on the occasion of death
a handful of bones
she had given to you
on the occasion of birth?
To depart without death or birth certificates
because the dictator does not give receipts

when he takes your life?
The dictator has a heart, too,
a balloon that never pops.
He has a skull, too, a huge one
not like any other skull.
It solved by itself a math problem
That multiplied the one death by millions
to equal homeland
The dictator is the director of a great tragedy.
He has an audience, too.
an audience that claps

until the bones begin to rattle-
the bones in bags,
the full bag finally in her hand,
unlike her disappointed neighbor
Dunya Mikhail

What differences do you notice between chunk 1 of the poem (lines 1-29) and chunk 2 of the poem (lines 30-47)?

Answer 1

Chunk 1 of Dunya Mikhail's poem deals with intimate and personal imagery, focusing on the individual's connection to the bones found, while chunk 2 introduces political and social commentary, touching on themes of collective suffering and responsibility.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student asks about the differences between chunk 1 (lines 1-29) and chunk 2 (lines 30-47) of Dunya Mikhail's poem 'Bag of Bones.' In chunk 1, the poem's language focuses on the personal and specific, with evocative imagery of an individual's bones and the emotional connection they hold. The narrator reflects on the uniqueness of the lost loved one's skull and the life experiences it represents, like listening to music and kissing the speaker. This section is intimate and focuses on the individual within the collective tragedy.

In contrast, chunk 2 broadens the scope to include political commentary and social critique. It introduces the figure of the dictator and the notion of a collective suffering watched by an audience. In this part, the poem explores themes of desensitization, collective responsibility, and the impersonal nature of mass tragedy. The dictator's heart is compared to a balloon, and his skull is labeled as uniquely different, representing the agency in causing mass death, thereby multiplying a single death into millions to equate to the homeland.