# Changelessness explained — The Book of Jade

> Chapter companion for The Book of Jade by David Park Barnitz.

## What happens

The speaker addresses a beautiful beloved, contemplating her death and transformation into ashes within an urn, yet asserts that her beauty will not perish but remain changeless and eternal.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and Decay

The chapter dwells on the beloved's death, her body turning to ashes, and the imagery of burial and decay.

### Vanity of Human Endeavor

Despite physical beauty and mortal love, all fades away, yet the poem paradoxically asserts the endurance of beauty beyond death.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who addresses the beloved and reflects on death and eternal beauty.

### Death

Personified as the force that touches the beloved's body, leading to her burial and transformation.

## Key lines

> When Death shall touch thy body beautiful, And thou that art of all the earth most fair Shalt close thine eyes upon the shining air, An unadorned gold urn to make full;

When Death touches your beautiful body, and you, the fairest on earth, close your eyes to the bright sky, filling a simple golden urn with your ashes.

_The speaker imagines the beloved's death and cremation._

> Then in the earth, O beautiful white love, Thy beauty shall not wholly end and cease, When that thou art gone to endless peace;

Then in the earth, my beautiful pale love, your beauty will not completely end or stop, even when you have gone to eternal rest.

_The speaker asserts that the beloved's beauty persists beyond death._

> Though all things beneath the sky above Fade away, it knoweth not to die, But abideth changeless endlessly.

Although everything under the sky fades away, this beauty does not know how to die, but remains unchanged forever.

_The concluding lines emphasize the eternal, unchanging nature of the beloved's beauty._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se/chapters/part-i-changelessness
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se/chapters