Explicate.

History by Robert Lowell

History has to live with what was here,
clutching and close to fumbling all we had--
it is so dull and gruesome how we die,
unlike writing, life never finishes.
Abel was finished; death is not remote,
a flash-in-the-pan electrifies the skeptic,
his cows crowding like skulls against high-voltage wire,
his baby crying all night like a new machine.
As in our Bibles, white-faced, predatory,
the beautiful, mist-drunken hunter's moon ascends--
a child could give it a face: two holes, two holes,
my eyes, my mouth, between them a skull's no-nose--
O there's a terrifying innocence in my face
drenched with the silver salvage of the mornfrost.

Throughout the poem “History” by Robert Lowell death is identified with human actions and emotions. The speaker’s tone seems passionate as the poem flows and as his descriptions of life and death become graphic. The first line of “History has to live with what was here” relays the poem’s title, but also creates a sense of time. As if whatever has happened will be evident for many times to come. The second line reveals how something was almost lost in the struggled that occurred in the place where history will have to live with, creating a relationship between what has past and the future since both are or will become history. The two following lines which criticizes the nature of dying and contrasts it from writing ties in very well the previous beginning lines from the poem. The way that Lowell points out life is not like writing creates a feeling of longevity that exists with each life and the suggests that although death may come life may not be over. The fifth line identifies the first person in the poem, but the character is conveyed to the topic of death because as he was “finished” death was not distant. This plays a large role in the first two lines explaining history because when does one know death is coming. It techniqually always is, unfortunately, from your first breath of air. However, as you begin to live your life and finish one accomplish or fall in dark times, will it be enough and will you have proven yourself before death comes? The sixth line addresses the issue of how powerful death can be once it is coming for you. The “flash-in-the-pain” which amazes the nonbelievers are the signs your life might be coming to and end. This does not explain horrific accidents which swipe you from the Earth in a second, but suggests the long waiting process of it as you age. Lines seven and eight state how when those signs become apparent everything and everyone but you could notice it. The crowding of the cows and the baby’s constant crying possibly suggests that the cows and child sense something. Through lines nine and ten the criticism of religion seems to be described as the speaker suggests religion, the Bible, will not save you from your time. The next line begins to physically describe the appearance of death or what portrays it as it comes. The repetition of “two holes” creates a comparison between the speaker and what is coming for him. The “two holes” are two sets of eyes and two sets of mouth, one which belongs to the speaker and another to death. The description in line twelve of a skull with no nose creates the imaging of a skeleton and a human body decomposing after death to become that skeleton with no nose. The “terrifying” innocence in the speaker’s seems to state that the awareness of what is coming and always will be coming for people throughout history and the future which is to become history is purifying. It is pure, true knowledge that one possibly might feel as their time approaches and as it brings clarity of the mind. The last line the “terrifying innocence” is covered with salvage from the morning frost. This last line reassures the reader that the speaker is not scared, but actually saved. The next morning has rescued him from what he thought had finally arrived after a lifetime of waiting. The last line reinforces the first line of the poem because the images of living one from day is also reminded that one’s time is still coming and it will come promptly someday. It has previously come before, millions of time throughout history.