For a Wanton — Summary

The title calls the speaker a “wanton,” an old-fashioned word for a woman considered loose or immoral. Speaking from beyond life, she says that to men she was never a person—only “cover,” like clothing they could take off or try on and then discard. That comparison makes her sound used, worn, and ultimately abandoned. But the turn is grimly satisfied: in Death she has found a “constant lover,” one who will not leave. Where men were fickle and temporary, Death is faithful and permanent. Now she lies held in his arms. The mood is cool, ironic, and quietly bitter rather than openly weeping. There is sadness in how little she expected from life, but also a strange peace in the idea that Death gives her the loyalty and permanence no man offered. The final image turns rejection into a dark kind of rest.