Poetry · Chapter
A Crocodile explained
The narrator addresses Peter Robertson, suggesting that death is preferable to a life filled with foolishness and empty talk.
What happens
The narrator addresses Peter Robertson, suggesting that death is preferable to a life filled with foolishness and empty talk. The grave offers peace from the incessant noise of the living, and even the sharpest wit is lost on the dead.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and Regret
The chapter dwells on death as a release from the burdens of life, contrasting the peace of the tomb with the folly of the living.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The narrator speaks directly to Peter Robertson, expressing contempt for his intellect and celebrating the silence of death.
Key passages
“Nay, Peter Robertson, ’tis not for you To blubber o’er Max Taubles for he’s dead. By Heaven! my hearty, if you only knew How better is a grave-worm in the head Than brains like yours—how far more decent, too, A tomb in far Korea than a bed Where Peter lies with Peter, you would covet His happier state and, dying, learn to love it.”
Peter Robertson should not mourn Max Taubles' death, because having worms in one's skull is preferable to having a mind like his. A grave in Korea is more honorable than the bed where Peter sleeps with himself, and he would envy the dead if he understood.
The narrator mocks Peter Robertson's intellect and suggests death is a better state than his life.
“In the recesses of the silent tomb No Maunderings of yours disturb the peace. Your mental bag-pipe, droning like the gloom Of Hades audible, perforce must cease From troubling further; and that crack o’ doom, Your mouth, shaped like a long bow, shall release In vain such shafts of wit as it can utter— The ear of death can’t even hear them flutter.”
In the quiet of the grave, your ramblings will no longer disturb anyone. Your mind, like a droning bagpipe from hell, will finally stop, and your mouth, bent like a bow, will shoot arrows of wit that fall unheard by the dead.
The narrator emphasizes the silence of death as a relief from Peter Robertson's endless, empty speech.