jumping a number

[ladorada]

Here is a poem by Robert Hampson ["the memory of possible mourning"] which has no punctuation marks except one dot in the end. In order to get the meaning, I would like a native speaker place some punctuation marks or, better, comment a little bit upon the poem.

what after all
remains to surrender
to the other
crossing over towards
the other at
the limit coming
towards the other
through the loss
detoured & redirected
through the text
a question of
limits beneath the
surface of language
the distance
of the other
& another
practice not yet
finished

as the casket slides
into each life some
decent interval of
learning from those
who know that
rain must fall
jumping a number to
jumpstart the jeep
is a loose narrative
of indeterminate agency
the engine races &
the handfull of earth
remains unthrown.

My questions are: Is "loss" "detoured & redirected" or is there a pause after "loss"? Could there be a dot after "surface of language"? The expression "practice not yet finished" � what kind of practice might be? Is this a separate sentence? I blocked at "jumping a number". Is this an phrase? The last three lines form a sentence, right?

[Quizmonkey]

It can't be punctuated - which is no doubt the reason for its lack of punctuation! One phrase leads into the next in a 'stream of consciousness' kind of way - producing ambiguity, half-developed ideas and leaving it open to interpretation in the mind of the reader.

I don't think much of it, incidentally!

[fairkatrina]

I agreew with Quizmonkey, the poem deliberately uses enjambement (the technique of not punctuating) to create a 'stream of consciousness'. You should be concentrating more on why the full stop (or 'end stop' as using punctuation is known) is employed: basic ideas include the link to loss of life, the deceased had literally reached a 'full stop', but you should also consider why the poem ends so finally before the earth has been thrown (which in christian tradition is the final phase - earth to earth etc).

You can link the poem to modernist works such as Joyce's 'Ulysses' which also employs a 'stream of consciousness' technique, but postmodern techniques are also evident. The uncertainty as to the overall meaning of the poem should be linked to the meaning of life, the cyclic beliefs of some religions as to the destiny of the soul (reincarnation, heaven etc), and ultimately to the fact that, when confronting death, man is reduced to a helpless and nonsensical muddle.

[ladorada]

thank you for your helpful answers which gave me a broader perspective. I understand that this technique offers many readings of a text. my main problem is that I cannot make sense for some associations of words, especially in the case of those already mentioned under the poem. of course, my translation won't have any dots or commas in the end, but it would have helped me find at least one meaning. It was hard to get a meaning for "jumping a number". for me the expression "to jump a number" suggests a kind of numbering such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 ... where number 6 is jumped. does this make sense here? as if there is a file of men and somebody else numbers them every day and one, who was supposed to be in his place, is not there one morning, which is an allusion to his death.

[fairkatrina]

You could also try linking it to the idea of 'your number being up' when you've died. Is the poet trying to stave off his own/the subject's death by being immortalised in his writing? (If so cross-reference with Shakespeare's sonnets, in which he declares that he is doing exactly that).