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Annotated by:
- Coulehan, Jack
- Date of entry: Jun-25-2004
Summary
As a medical student Stone moves ("in our own tense tendons") into a new understanding of the body, in which knowledge of names ("the word") gives power over the mysteries that lie under the skin. "Ribs spring like gates." Within the gates they [students] find the secret cause of death: an aortic aneurysm. But the aneurysm isn't just a fact; it tells a human story, a story of an "old sin-- / the silent lust / that had buried itself . . . ." Thus, the cadaver speaks.
Primary Source
The Smell of Matches
Publisher
Rutgers Univ. Press
Place Published
New Brunswick, N.J.
Edition
1972