Abse, Dannie : Millie's Date

Literature Annotations

Genre	Poem
Keywords	Aging, Caregivers, Death and Dying, Dementia, Physician Experience, Survival
Summary	With sedative voices we joke and spar around Millie's bed. An aged woman, "all skull," whose only child died at age 77, she cries, "Let me die, let me die!" From the midst of delirium or dementia, she remarks, "the Angels of Death survive forever." The poet wonders whether some of these Angels "are disguised as vagrants, assigned / to each of us . . . . " One of them must be Millie's date, but where is he? "Has he lost his way, has he lost his mind?" The poet half-expects to find him on the street, begging, playing his violin.
Commentary	Some old people just won't die. There's not much left of Millie, ravaged as she is by age and disease and "quiet now, in a valium doze," but it looks like Death has stood her up. In a fine poetic leap, the poet imagines Death as a beggar; anyone could win him over by putting two coins "as big as eyes" in his hat. This last line recalls the old tradition of putting coins on the eyes of corpses.
Source	Sky in Narrow Streets
Publisher	Quarterly Review of Literature
Edition	1987
Place Published	Princeton, N.J.
Annotated by	Coulehan, Jack
Date of Entry	02/13/97
Last Revised	03/13/97