Dead Stars

“Dead Stars” opens with a five-line stanza, or quintain, that introduces a contemplative tone with an emphasis on the natural world. The speaker notes that trees, despite their sturdiness and strength, bow; winter is personified with a harsh, omnipresent hand: “Out here, there’s a bowing even the trees are doing. / Winter’s icy hand at the back of all of us” (Lines 1-2). Limón imbues nature with vivid details and significance. The remaining lines of the stanza build the dramatic tone of the poem, creating a sense of eerie stillness. Nature is in a dead state, making the speaker feel displaced from the present: “Black bar, slick yellow leaves, a kind of stillness / that feels / so mute it’s almost in another year” (Lines 3-5). The lines comprise one complete sentence, but creative spacing—like indenting Line 4—slow the rhythm of the poem, enhancing the cool and contemplative tone.

The next stanza is a single line. Where the first stanza found the speaker looking outward, here, they turn inward, and the tone remains dramatic: “I am a hearth of spiders these days: a nest of trying” (Line 6). Describing themselves as a hearth of spiders maintains an emphasis on the natural world, connecting the speaker to their