All The Dead Dears by Sylvia Plath Summary

Rigged poker -stiff on her back
With a granite grin
This antique museum-cased lady
Lies, companioned by the gimcrack
Relics of a mouse and a shrew
That battened for a day on her ankle-bone.

These three, unmasked now, bear
Dry witness
To the gross eating game
We’d wink at if we didn’t hear
Stars grinding, crumb by crumb,
Our own grist down to its bony face.

How they grip us through think and thick,
These barnacle dead!
This lady here’s no kin
Of mine, yet kin she is: she’ll suck
Blood and whistle my narrow clean
To prove it. As I think now of her hand,

From the mercury-backed glass
Mother, grandmother, greatgrandmother
Reach hag hands to haul me in,
And an image looms under the fishpond surface
Where the daft father went down
With orange duck-feet winnowing this hair —-

All the long gone darlings: They
Get back, though, soon,
Soon: be it by wakes, weddings,
Childbirths or a family barbecue:
Any touch, taste, tang’s
Fit for those outlaws to ride home on,

And to sanctuary: usurping the armchair
Between tick
And tack of the clock, until we go,
Each skulled-and-crossboned Gulliver
Riddled with ghosts, to lie
Deadlocked with them, taking roots as cradles rock.

The poem starts with a description of a dead woman lying on her back with a stiff and unnatural smile, resembling a poker player. She is depicted as being preserved like an exhibit in a museum, accompanied by insignificant remnants of animals.

The speaker reflects on the presence of the dead woman, the mouse, and the shrew, who now serve as silent witnesses to the inevitable process of decay and consumption. The imagery of “stars grinding” suggests the relentless passage of time and the gradual erosion of life.

Despite the distance between the speaker and the dead woman, there is a sense of connection and shared humanity. The dead woman’s hand symbolizes a link to the past generations, reaching out from beyond the grave to pull the speaker into a familial embrace.

The speaker’s thoughts turn to their ancestors, represented by the figures of the mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, who exert a haunting influence over the present. The image of the father submerged beneath the surface of a fishpond adds to the atmosphere of eerie nostalgia.

The poem emphasizes the cyclical nature of familial bonds, suggesting that the departed loved ones will return to the living through various life events such as wakes, weddings, and family gatherings. The sensory experiences associated with these events serve as pathways for the deceased to reconnect with the living.

In the final stanza, the speaker envisions a future where they will join their ancestors in death, becoming intertwined with the ghosts of the past. The image of being “deadlocked with them” implies a sense of finality and inevitability, as the speaker’s existence merges with the continuum of familial legacy.

Overall, “All The Dead Dears” portrays a haunting meditation on the enduring presence of the dead within the realm of the living, exploring themes of mortality, ancestry, and the cyclical nature of human existence.