Chapter 3: This is how I scare the dirt – Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The poem "This is how I scare the dirt" functions as a defiant declaration against death and burial. The speaker describes an act of reversing their own interment by intimidating the soil and scaring the dirt away from the coffin. They puff out their chest and pose a question: "What do we tell the god of death?" The answer, drawn from a poetic tradition, is "Not today." The final image equates a pen with a shovel, suggesting that the act of writing is itself a means of digging oneself out of the grave.
Key Events
- The speaker begins by describing how they "scare the dirt / away from the coffin" and "intimidate the soil."
- They announce an act of reversal: "this is how / I reverse my own burial."
- The speaker asks, "What do we tell the god of death?" and the poem responds, "Not today."
- The poem concludes with the line, "Sometimes, / a pen / is also a shovel."
Character Development
- The Speaker: Throughout the poem, the speaker transforms from a passive figure about to be buried into an active, defiant presence. They assert control over the dirt, the coffin, and even death itself. This shift from victim to victor demonstrates a powerful reclamation of agency.
- Death (implied personification): Death is presented as a figure to be spoken back to, not feared. The speaker's refusal to submit repositions death as an opponent that can be challenged.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Defiance: The entire poem is an act of resistance against mortality. The speaker refuses the fate of burial and instead claims the power to reverse it.
- Writing as Resurrection: The pen-as-shovel metaphor elevates writing to a life-saving act. Words become tools to excavate oneself from the grave, turning poetry into a form of survival.
- The Body and the Grave: Dirt, coffin, and soil are symbols of death and finality. The speaker's ability to scare them away suggests that the physical reality of death can be psychologically or spiritually overturned.
- Mythological Allusion: The question "What do we tell the god of death?" echoes the refrain from Neil Gaiman's American Gods ("Not today"), tying the poem to a broader literary tradition of defiance.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 3 introduces a central metaphor of the collection: writing as a shovel that digs the poet out of despair or death. It establishes the voice of a speaker who refuses to accept defeat, a theme that resonates throughout I'll Fly Away. The poem is short but dense, packing a full narrative of agency and rebellion into a few lines. It also serves as a thesis for how the book uses poetry to confront and transcend pain.
Study Questions and Answers
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What does the speaker mean by "reverse my own burial"?
The speaker asserts control over the process of being laid to rest, implying they can undo death's grip through an act of will or creative expression. It's a metaphorical refusal to stay dead. -
Why does the poem equate a pen with a shovel?
A shovel is used to dig—either to bury or to unearth. Here, the pen becomes a tool to dig out of the grave, suggesting that writing can rescue the self from oblivion. The pen replaces the shovel, turning the act of composition into a life-giving labor. -
How does the poem's structure reinforce its theme?
The lines are fractured and assertive, with short stanzas that mimic the speaker's puffed chest. The question-and-answer format creates a call-and-response that mirrors a ritual, and the abrupt final line delivers the poem's central insight with the force of a discovered truth.