Weekly Read: “Fast-Thinning Throng” by Rachel Hadas
BLR’s Weekly Read brings you one outstanding story, poem, or essay from our archive. This week’s read is “Fast-Thinning Throng” by Rachel Hadas, from BLR‘s 10th anniversary issue.
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I’m angrily packing to fly to my dying brother.
My husband stands and watches. As a tree
might look at someone, he looks down at me.
For him each death is walled in its own courtyard.
When, on the other hand, my friend hears news
of mortal illness, empathy keeps her up.
She lies awake anticipating death
steering in her direction. And it will.
Why this poem?
“The title is taken from a line in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The poem addresses the speaker’s conflicted feelings as she prepares to visit her dying brother while her husband simply ‘stands and watches.’ She muses, ‘Which of us can walk into the place/ where death presides and know just what to say/ and do, and say and
do it.’ Iambic pentameter provides discipline for the speaker’s unruly feelings. As she so often does, Hadas hones in on our significant life experiences.“
– Felice Aull, BLR Reviewer
More from Rachel
Poet, essayist, and translator Rachel Hadas is the author of many books of poetry, including Pandemic Almanac, Ghost Guest, and, most recently, Pastorals. A prosimetrum (alternating poetry and prose) entitled From Which We Start Awake, is forthcoming from Able Muse Press. Her poem “Voyage” is included in the 2024 edition of The Best American Poetry anthology. Rachel is Professor of English Emerita at Rutgers University-Newark. Learn more about Rachel on her website.
Earlier this year, Rachel—alongside fellow poet Matthew Lippman—shared some of her work in a virtual reading for the JBI Poetry Series, “Love and Dread in an Unrestful Time.”