How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
[. . .] a black hole,
and there at the bottom the eyes of a girl
drowned a thousand years ago, (228-230)
These lines finally reveal the sad ending to the memory that has been causing all this trouble. These lines are huge, because they confirm that the girl from so long ago is actually dead, and has been for a while. Now we know why the speaker is so obsessed, and why he can't get back to his lost love.
Quote #5
nothing happens, you're quiet, you blink,
[. . .]
the raving, the dark sound we make
when dying and that pulsebeat of life
as it's born, and the sound of bones being crushed
in the fray and the foaming mouth of the prophet
and his scream and the scream of the hangman
and the scream of the victim… (421-455)
The speaker ponders all the possibilities for what death is: is it a quiet passage into nothingness, or a painful, noisy, horrible end? He really works through the options, too, and the noisy ones are kind of scary.