This twelve-line, one sentence poem, in couplets, with its irregular line length, looks slight. But the ideas within it are the big ideas, the big theme of transience. Its long last line is a notable feature of the poem and it's effect is felt even on a first reading. Endings is a thought provoking lyric and explains the ending of a relationship or the passing away of life. It is a meditation or reflection on the brevity of life, as Walcott deals with the inevitability of death. The brevity of human life is set against the backdrop of the natural world. Walcott juxtaposes the human and natural world it memorable similes.
The poem begins with a statement on the nature of change. The speaker suggests that change is not dramatic, easily recognised. Instead the is a natural, gradual, gentle change;
Things do not explode
They fail, they fade.
The use of “explode”, the rejection of that same idea, the confident tone of the poems opening line and the use of the alliterative “fail” and “fade” present the reader with a strong, persuasive declaration. The following four couplets then offer examples that illustrate the premise or proposition. This is an effect rhetorical technique. One such example of how things end can be found in the way
Sunlight fades from the flesh
Or
The foam drains quick in the sand
These lines represent snapshots. This cinematography gives a greater insight into the movement and colour that represent change. These attractive images enhance the senses of the reader. The repetitive F sounds - fail, fade, fades, flesh, foam - and the repetition of “they” and “as” contribute to the poems musical quality.
In the third couplet the word “even” announces another and stronger instance of the speakers belief in the nature of things:
Even love's lightning flesh
Has no thunderous end
Here there is the recognition of loves exciting nature - it's “lightning flash” - and also, it's fading away petering out, its ending without drama. This is due to the emotion “dies” slowly over a long period of time. The transient nature of life. Walcott presents the death of love as a truly distressing thing. The vacuum and silence after the slow fading of love is represented with a truly haunting image.
It dies with the sound
Of flowers fading like the flesh
The image of fading flowers is a familiar one. No flower explodes and the fact that nature fades away is a very effective reminder of the truth that things “fail” and “fade”. We know it, the poet says, from our noticing of the gradual fading away of flesh when wee use a pumice stone.
From sweating pumice stone
The speaker presents us with the final, intriguing couplet
Till we are left
With the silence that surrounds Beethoven's head.
The image of Beethoven brings alive an image of brilliance, genius, music, and creativity. The poem's final image reminds us of Beethoven's mind and his imagination expressed through his masterful music. This last stanza perhaps contradicts the first 5, as it can be interpreted that the work of art, in this instance music, can live beyond death, beyond the silence. However it can also be interpreted that even a great man such as Beethoven, will eventually “fail” and “fade”. It becomes a striking image of Endings.
