Interment — Summary

For the burial of an anchor, let the water eat as much as a bed full of trouble.

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The poem imagines a small, odd ceremony: a burial for an anchor. An anchor is normally what holds a boat steady, so burying it suggests letting go of something that kept the speaker in place. The speaker's wish is that the water "eat" it, as if the sea were swallowing the anchor the way a person might wish to swallow up their worries.

The last two lines carry the feeling. A "bed full of trouble" sounds like a place where someone lies awake, turning over their problems. The speaker seems to want the water to take as much of that trouble as it takes of the anchor, or perhaps to take the anchor along with it. Judging by the wording, the speaker is tired and wants relief rather than anything dramatic.

The mood is quiet and a little weary, but not hopeless. The poem is short and spare, like a murmured request, and the idea of sinking heavy things into deep water leaves a calm, almost hopeful sense of release.

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