world. References to silence recur in the poem.
At the end of the poem, the poet’s world is
wrapped in one big silence, just as it might be
at the end of life, and this marks a fitting place
for the words on the page to end. After the poem,
silence reigns.
Memory and Mortality
Among Wright’s recurring themes are memory
and mortality. They are, of course, tied together
with his theme of time. Memories are images of
the past that people hold in the present, and they
can sometimes be irrepressible and thereby
annoying, if not painful. ‘‘Words Are the Dimin-
ution of All Things’’ is a meditation on the
passage of time and what that means for one’s
mortality. In typical style, Wright blends human
mortality with imagination and the natural
world. The words he imagines around him still
hold their secrets, still hold the power to reveal
something profound, so the light has momentar-
ily come back into his life. However, when the
speaker is nudged to remember how he used to
work with the words, he shakes it off because he
thinks there is no point to it anymore. He can see
the buzzards in the sky ready to swoop down
upon the dead; they would not be there unless
death was imminent. The landscape is commu-
nicating transcendence: the skies are getting
cloudy, dried leaves on the ground are like
dropped notes of warning, the evening
approaches, and rain darkens the day, too.
Themes of mortality often explore questions
about the meaning of life and the nature of
death. Wright’s poetry shows an interest in the
journey of discovery, the greatest of which is life
itself. In this poem, the poet is considering what
happens at the end of his journey—the remem-
brance of words but the inability to utter them,
the darkness, the silence. Wright uses his poetryTOPICS FOR
FURTHER
STUDY Take Wright’s first line and use it as the first
line in a poem you create yourself. In your
poem describe a place and a particular time
and connect them to the idea of secrets.
Then write a one-page analysis of what you
learned about your writing and about
Wright’s poem by doing this assignment.
Wright has received many awards. As a class,
make a list of these awards. Then each student
should prepare a notecard report on one of
these awards answering the following ques-
tions: What is the purpose of the award? Is
the award for lifetime achievement or for a
particular work? How often is the award
given? Is it given in any other fields besides
poetry? Is there a cash prize that goes with the
award? Is the award given to only one person
at a time?
Find pictures of the Blue Ridge mountains
on the Internet or from magazines and travel
brochures. Make a collage of these pictureson a poster, leaving room to write in your
reactions to or descriptions of these pictures.
Added together, these thoughts will prob-
ably turn out to sound like a poem of your
own or could be polished into one.
Wright’s father was an engineer who built
dams for the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA), an important project of Franklin
Roosevelt’s New Deal. Divide the class into
groups to research and answer the following
questions: When and why was the TVA cre-
ated? What construction has resulted from
the TVA? Is the TVA still an active govern-
ment agency? if so, what does it do now?
What benefits have resulted from the work
of the TVA? Report back to the rest of the
class. Provide appropriate pictures, if possi-
ble, and provide links to relevant web sites
and/or recommendations for informational
books or articles.Words Are the Diminution of All Things