“Poem After the Seven Last Words,” which fills the final section of the three parts in Mark Strand’s 2006 collection of poems, Man and Camel, presents a sequence in seven cantos, each segment containing a lovely stanza concerning Christ’s crucifixion, all filled with lyrical and meditative language. The piece originally was commissioned by the Brentano String Quartet and written to accompany a performance of Haydn’s quartet opus 51. Last year on Good Friday, I offered an article introducing the sequence and displaying the dramatic sixth section, in which the poet writes of Christ’s death: “’It is finished,’ he said into a vastness / that led to an even greater vastness, and yet all of it / within him. He contained it all . . ..”Today, I return to that powerful poem with a look at the thoughtful and evocative opening canto:
The story of the end, of the last word
of the end, when told, is a story that never ends.
We tell it and retell it—one word, then another
until it seems that no last word is possible,
that none would be bearable. Thus, when the hero
of the story says to himself, as to someone far away,
“Forgive them, for they know not what they do,”
we may feel that he is pleading for us, that we are
the secret life of the story and, as long as his plea
is not answered, we shall be spared. So the story
continues. So we continue. And the end, once more,
becomes the next, and the next after that.
Readers are encouraged to consider the previous commentary about “Poem After the Seven Last Words” on “One Poet’s Notes.” In addition, I invite readers to examine my review of Man and Camel. To view a number of other articles at “One Poet’s Notes” regarding the poetry of Mark Strand, please use the “search blog” box above.
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