“The Instant of My Death” Introduction

• Read the full text of “The Instant of My Death”

“The Instant of My Death” Summary

“The Instant of My Death” Themes

• 

  Time and Mortality

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-12
• 

  Travel, Attention, and Awareness

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-12

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Instant of My Death”

• Lines 1-4

  The bus was ...
  ... by its peaks.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  I traced the ...
  ... between two dhabas;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  a black-eyed bean, ...
  ... with his thumb.

  

  

  

  

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“The Instant of My Death” Symbols

• 

  The Boy with the Gun

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 7-11: “There, where the road divided, / I saw a thin boy in red flannel squat between two dhabas; / a black-eyed bean, slipped in between two crags, he was so small / that I almost missed him, until he turned, gap-toothed, and shot me / with a toy gun.”

“The Instant of My Death” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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  Where enjambment appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “cat / while”
  • Lines 2-3: “back / and”
  • Lines 3-4: “tripping / as”
  • Lines 6-7: “over / until”
  • Lines 9-10: “small / that”
  • Lines 10-11: “me / with”

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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  Where imagery appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “The bus was crammed and the fat man rubbed against my leg like a damp cat”
  • Line 3: “we all stumbled on; wheels and hours grinding, tripping”
  • Line 4: “Spiti rose up around us, sky propped open by its peaks”
  • Lines 8-11: “I saw a thin boy in red flannel squat between two dhabas; / a black-eyed bean, slipped in between two crags, he was so small / that I almost missed him, until he turned, gap-toothed, and shot me / with a toy gun”

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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  Where metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Line 4: “sky propped open by its peaks”
  • Line 9: “a black-eyed bean”
  • Line 11: “a piece of me stopped then”

• Zeugma

  

  

  

  

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  Where zeugma appears in the poem:

  • Line 3: “wheels and hours grinding, tripping”

“The Instant of My Death” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Crammed
• The Jataka Tales
• Spiti
• Gompas
• Gramphoo
• Flannel
• Dhabas
• Crags

• (Location in poem: Line 1: “The bus was crammed”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Instant of My Death”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Instant of My Death” Speaker

“The Instant of My Death” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Instant of My Death”

More “The Instant of My Death” Resources

• External Resources

  • An Interview with the Poet — Read an interview in Magma magazine in which Sarah Jackson discusses her work.

  • More Jackson Poems — Read more poems from the book in which "The Instant of My Death" appeared. 

  • Jackson's Website — Check out the poet's website to learn more about her work.