the rites for Cousin Vit

The poem pits life against death. At first, death appears to have the upper hand. Death controls Cousin Vit. Through the funeral rites, death carries Cousin Vit “unprotesting out the door” (Line 1); death animates and contains her. She’s in a casket and on the “casket-stand” (Line 2)—all of which belong to death. Then, Cousin Vit counters the idea that death is all-powerful and irreversible. Certain lives, like Cousin Vit’s, can resist and reject death’s reach. The casket-stand “can’t hold her” (Line 2).

Death has met its match in Cousin Vit. What’s supposed to “enfold her” (Line 3) fails, as neither the “stuff and satin” (Line 3) nor the “lid’s contrition” and “bolts” (Line 4) can successfully hold her down. Cousin Vit’s life triumphs over the power of death. Her life is “[t]oo much. Too much” (Line 5). Death can’t handle Cousin Vit’s dynamism; she escapes the funeral and the clutches of death. She “rises in the sunshine” (Line 6)—from the dead—and heads back to her exuberant life.

Through Cousin Vit, Brooks tackles the theme of a life well-lived. Life involves desire, noise, movement, and mess. Life is somewhat mysterious or unexplainable, which might be why the speaker only suggests what’s meant by “love-rooms” (Line 8), “pregnancy” (Line 12), and “parks or alleys” (Line 13).