Very nice. An example of prosopopoeia, the trope of making the dead speak, which is always slightly creepy because they don't say what you want and (as a critic, I think Paul de Man, said) the implied symmetry of the trope suggests that when the dead speak, the living are struck dumb. And indeed the living figures in the poem (the addressed "you" and Tom) are shown in friezes of miscommunication, unmade phone calls and forgotten names in address books.
I like the interval since the speaker's death being "a World War ago," and the hazed hall, and the final question bearing no question mark as the speaker begins to return to inanition.
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I like the interval since the speaker's death being "a World War ago," and the hazed hall, and the final question bearing no question mark as the speaker begins to return to inanition.
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