Suicidal tendencies — Summary

dead things lodging in the garden grown out of order

a desire to be gone which I am sorry for

like a sign in the wind dancing with no will

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The poem is a quiet, unsettling confession. The speaker describes an inner state through a garden: it has "grown out of order," and dead things have taken up residence there. It reads as an image of a mind or life that has been left untended, where something lifeless has settled in and stayed.

The second stanza says it plainly, though gently: "a desire to be gone / which I am sorry for." The speaker isn't defiant or dramatic. They feel guilt about the wish, as if it were an imposition on others, or a failing of their own. That apology makes the poem feel honest and a little heartbreaking.

The last image, "a sign in the wind / dancing with no will," suggests someone pushed around by forces they can't control, moving without choosing to. The mood is weary, passive and subdued. The short lines and spare wording leave a lot of silence around the words, which makes the feeling seem all the heavier.

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