Montparnasse Poem by Ernest Hemingway

Montparnasse

Rating: 2.9


There are never any suicides in the quarter among people one knows
No successful suicides.
A Chinese boy kills himself and is dead.
(they continue to place his mail in the letter rack at the Dome)
A Norwegian boy kills himself and is dead.
(no one knows where the other Norwegian boy has gone)
They find a model dead
alone in bed and very dead.
(it made almost unbearable trouble for the concierge)
Sweet oil, the white of eggs, mustard and water, soap suds
and stomach pumps rescue the people one knows.
Every afternoon the people one knows can be found at the café.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Adeeb Alfateh 29 July 2019

They find a model dead alone in bed and very dead. great 10++++++++++++++

0 0 Reply
Mikho Mosulishvili 14 March 2019

I translated this verse in Georgian... I like such irony in suggestive layers of text...

0 0 Reply

Hopelessness of individual makes the humans go back from the realities. Though suicide is the subject the poem in its inner depth of contents felt beautiful.

2 0 Reply
Paul Smith 05 December 2013

Very blasé attitude towards suicide. Certainly helped his reputation for 'manliness'.

1 3 Reply
John Doe 26 March 2012

It is so sad that this was Hemingway's basic worldview. It drips from the majority of his poetry. It bears witness to the hopelessness that he felt and obviously it reflects his ultimate end. Such a void can only be filled by Jesus Christ.

6 14 Reply
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