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Vocabulary in My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close

Vocabulary Examples in My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close:

Text of the Poem

🔒 4

"hopeless..."   (Text of the Poem)

The word “hopeless” works on two registers. According to the poem’s syntax, the adjective is ascribed to the “third event.” The next event is “hopeless to conceive”: the speaker anticipates, but cannot truly predict, another tragic occurrence. Despite the syntax, the word more accurately applies to the speaker, who experiences hopelessness in the memory of past grief and the certainty of grief yet to come.

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"unveil..."   (Text of the Poem)

The word “unveil” suggests that the speaker holds a passive perspective. Life’s events are to be “unveil[ed],” rather than chosen through acts of will. There is a sense of fate, as if the occasions of one’s life already exist, waiting only to be revealed.

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"Immortality..."   (Text of the Poem)

In this instance, “Immortality” refers not to a fanciful idea of endless life, but rather to the continued staving off of death. “Immortality” here means “not yet dying.” From this perspective, the speaker wonders whether the remaining stretch of life will be punctuated by another trauma.

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"remains..."   (Text of the Poem)

“Remains” can be read in several different ways. On one level, the line is a derivation of the old figure of speech, “It remains to be seen.” In this saying, the word “It” is nonspecific. In this poem, however, “It” refers back to “My life.” The suggestion then is that the speaker’s life “remains,” or continues on, only in order “to see” if a third event will arise. The word “remains” also refers to a corpse, an important connotation here. By subtly referring to “My life” as “remains,” the speaker acknowledges the two deaths already experienced.

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