¶ … Faulkner looking at the rhythms, sounds and underlying meanings.
The Unremorseful Day
The poem as read from a simple standing does not make complete sense it jumps from one aspect to another John is dying yet Joe is reading the story yet who is telling the story, there is a definite obscurity to the way the narrator gives his views, from the dying of John to the eating and preparing of food to the death of John.
There is no regular rhythm to the poem it falls into the lines of a disjointed dirge for the funeral march, the book seems of no interest to the narrator at all it seems as if the book is boring and has no consequence at all to the life of this man. In fact it can be seen that the book does not make any sense to the narrator at all even though he himself is an English teacher and should know what the "they " want.
To understand the poem one must have an understanding of the disjointed views that goes through a persons minds as his friend or relation is dying, it is a mixture of what is happening in the present and what events are happening within the so called book he is reading, the world to this person has become intermingled with a fantasy of insecurity of his own psyche.
Looking at the poem from a deeper level it can be seen that the meaning can have the simple view that this is how a person who has become bereaved picks up someone's life story, the twin sides of a persons life good and bad, bringing forth the proximity of selfish relations who care nothing for a story of time and life.
Moreover the self effacing symbology of a ritualized preparation of the wishes of a dying man to the wake can be superimposed upon the need to tell a story or poem to bring forth a sacrifice of emotions and confusion that enables the reader to delve into a man's mind of remorse, forgetfulness and un wanted thoughts that shape themselves around a key event in a person's life
