Afterthoughts

http://poemhunter.com/poem/afterthoughts/

Many of Robinson’s poems (including his most famous “Richard Cory”) follow a seemingly mundane event or person with the whole poem turning on the last two to four lines. In many instances, this is how life is. A seemingly typical day, event, or action can become burnt into our memories based on completely unrelated events. If you’ve ever lost anyone near to you, you realize this feeling. Every seemingly insignificant moment you had with them during your last talk or last encounter with them is now with you forever. A look, a smile, a laugh, a phrase, or a gesture that on all other days and at all other times would be nearly meaningless has been given a special place in your heart. Every little thing about that person you remember is now so much more important.

In “Afterthoughts” Robinson tells the story from the point of view of a forlorn Tilbury Town resident that by all means was just a normal “see ya later.” The last five lines of the first stanza are quite complicated, but this is what I gather. The person being spoken about has “Earned more than the earth gives to those who have won more than it has to give when they are gone.” I start at the end to figure out “What the earth gives someone when they are gone.” I figure “gone” to be dead and what is given is peace, happiness, or something along those lines. These lines are stating that what the writer has learned from this encounter is that the other person has a happiness or peace or some desirable quality about their spirit beyond that of the average or even above average person.

The second stanza begins by describing what the person says as meaning “little then and less today” and the way he spoke had “little Delphic heights to climb.” The term Delphic means “obscurely prophetic,” so the line “he had little Delphic heights to climb,” just meant he spoke simply and meant exactly what was said. Despite his lack of eloquence and subtlety the writer looks back on the event (but more the person) and now considers this to be “somehow nearer the sublime.”

In a typical Robinson way the poem abruptly reveals the twist and ends, simultaneously making the event important and explaining the emotions of the writer.