# Song for a Suicide explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Langston Hughes.

## What happens

A meditation on suicide as a release from suffering, comparing the finality of death by sea, knife, or poison to a restful nothingness from which there is no return.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and Mortality

The poem directly addresses suicide and the desire for death as a final, restful end to suffering.

### Dreams and Despair

The tired soul yearns for the rest of death, reflecting deep despair and the loss of hope for any other resolution.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker yearns for the rest of death, contemplating suicide as an escape from weariness.

### Death

Death is personified as the bringer of a deep, long sleep and a nothingness from which no road returns.

## Key lines

> Oh, the sea is deep / And a knife is sharp / And a poison acid burns; / But they all bring rest / In a deep, long sleep / For which the tired soul yearns

Though the methods of suicide are violent and painful, they all lead to a peaceful, eternal rest that the exhausted spirit craves.

_The speaker contrasts the harshness of the means with the desired peace of the end._

> They all bring rest in a nothingness / From where no road returns.

Each method leads to an absolute void, a final state from which there is no coming back.

_Emphasizes the irreversible finality of death as a complete cessation of existence._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_15_se/chapters/song-for-a-suicide
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_15_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_15_se/chapters