Jeffers' Death Plan

The Bed by the Window

I chose the bed downstairs by the sea-window for a good death-bed

When we built the house, it is ready waiting,

Unused unless by some guest in a twelvemonth, who hardly suspects

Its latter purpose. I often regard it,

With neither dislike nor desire; rather with both, so equalled

That they kill each other and a crystalline interest

Remains alone. We are safe to finish what we have to finish;

And then it will sound rather like music

When the patient daemon behind the screen of sea-rock and sky

Thumps with his staff, and calls thrice: 'Come, Jeffers.'

A majority of Jeffers’ poetry is based on his view, both belief wise and visually. However, this poem stretches that as it is uniquely autobiographical. It takes place in the house he built and describes both the way he lives and his mindset on his own death. Interestingly he was not very old at the time this poem was written, nor doing poorly economically to reinforce thoughts of death. “The Bed by the Window” serves as insight to Jeffers view of his mortality and does so through specific connections to his life, poetic structure, and powerful imagery.

The room created in Jeffers’ poem does exist, showing that this is not only a dramatic view on the short lifespan of people but also personal aspect. It is well known that Robinson built his stone house “Tor House” where he and his family lived for the rest of their lives, making the part of “When we built the house” in line two connected to reality. The house was also located on the Californian coast, connecting to “the screen of sea-rock and sky” where the daemon calls from. Most significantly, instead of ending the poem with the daemon calling thrice to any person, he specifically calls himself to his death bed. It is common for Jeffers to discuss the extinction of humans in his poems and refer to them more as a temporary species inhabiting Earth, but putting his name in creates a personal connection to death. By placing his poem in his spare room and based around his life, he creates almost more of a confession about his ideas of death than a description.

The structure and word-choice throughout the poem also convey Jeffers’ feelings on his own death. Until the last line of the poem, Jeffers never finishes a sentence at the end of a line. This creates a steady flow through the poem the mimics the flow of life, ended with Jeffers’ call to his deathbed. Also, in line three he uses “twelvemonth” instead of year that reinforces the flow of time not limited to larger units of years but separated into smaller units. In line two he switches tenses, from the past with “When we built the house” to the present “it is ready waiting.” This gives the room the feeling as though it was always meant to exist (as death will always occur) and it has been ready to accept Jeffers even before it was built.

Jeffers also uses subtle yet impactful imagery to show the imminence of death. Though the poem is specific to his life, he does not spend much time describing what the room looks like. All that is known of it is it having a bed that looks out a window into the sea. He also personifies his thoughts in the middle of the poem, and his coming to terms with the idea of his own death. Also, he does not paint death as something evil. His daemon is “patient” and will call only when everything he was meant to complete in his life has been accomplished. Though the call to death is still commanding and if not ominous with the staff thumping, it is not portrayed as entirely evil.

People often spend time considering their own death, will it occur too soon? Or possibly will it be long after they know who they are? Jeffers seems to have designated a room in his house both to try to predict and become comfortable with the idea of his own death. By placing the setting in his house and himself as the narrator, he has made the poem a strong possibility (upon further research I have found that he did actually pass away in this bed as well as his wife some years prior). Through the structure of his poem, Jeffers has mirrored the finality of death through the rhythm of a sentence. Also, the imagery creates death as something not to be feared, and also shows that though the poem is specific to him, the occasion is not. Altogether it creates an interesting perspective on how to imagine your own death without sadness.