Good Bones

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2016

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Life’s Brevity

The phrase “Life is short” (Line 1) opens the poem and is repeated in Lines 2 and 10. This theme of the shortness of life reverberates throughout the poem. Speaking as a parent, the speaker knows more about life and the world than their young children just discovering life, and who have yet to discover the world’s dangers, corruption, and shortcomings. Slightly jaded with experience, the speaker sees the world and life for what it is: a difficult place to exist due to the crime, violence, sadness, and troubles permeating what otherwise would be a beautiful place.

As a theme, the briefness of life comments on several ideas. First, it hinges on how fast children grow up, leave childhood behind, and enter the dangers of the adult world. Second, this theme demonstrates how soon the speaker (as a parent) will be unable to protect their children from the terribleness of the world; yet, as a parent, they will always be responsible for the children they brought into the world. Third, this theme hints at the possibility that there is not enough time to fix the problems of the world.

In Line 10 the phrase is repeated, followed by another phrase that’s repeated multiple times throughout the poem: “Life is short and the world / is at least half terrible” (Lines 10-11). By pairing these two repeated phrases, Smith makes a larger argument about the state of the world and one’s brief time on Earth. The world is in ruins and life is too short to mend it. The shortness of life also illuminates the speaker’s own feelings about life and the world in which they’re living as an adult. It shines light on the fact that they might not be happy with what they’ve done with their time on earth (“I’ve shortened mine / in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways” [Lines 2-3]).

Spoken as a word of warning, the speaker wishes a better life for their children, but simultaneously recognizes that life is not very long and there are many traps into which one may fall. Built on carefully crafted secrecy, the poem chooses not to share these truths with the children. Instead, the poem chooses to sell the children the potential of the world in hopes they will make choose to make it more beautiful.

Good and Terrible

In “Good Bones” two tropes are pinned to each other: good and terrible. Good, initially mentioned in the title, is not again specifically stated until the second to last line of the poem when the speaker takes on the form of a realtor trying to sell the world to their children, “[chirping] on / about good bones” (Lines 15-16). The speaker dwells on the opposite of goodness, defined in Lines 5 and 6 as the following: “The world is at least / fifty percent terrible” (Lines 5-6). An almost verbatim sentiment is reiterated in Line 11 (“the world / is at least half terrible” [Lines 10-11]); the speaker spends the majority of the poem illustrating what they define as “terrible” (Line 11). Terrible represents the opposite of goodness. It’s filled with immoral, unethical, and unkind acts: “For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird” (Line 8) and for each kind stranger, “there is one who would break you” (Line 12). Through this discussion of what is good and terrible, the speaker illustrates the opposing nature of the world. The world is a dangerous place, and many do not act with virtue, morals, or ethics.

At the end of the poem, goodness and terribleness are comingled. In the final lines, having dwelled on the negatives of the world, the speaker tries to see the goodness, what they define as “good bones” (Line 16). Defined as being virtuous or morally good, goodness in “Good Bones” does not need to be illustrated. Through the illustration of what is terrible, the speaker illustrates the opposite: what is good. For instance, “every loved child” (Line 9) represents a positive, virtuous action, while “a children broken, bagged, / sunk in a lake” (Lines 9-10) represents the terrible side of the world. Through these two ideas, Smith’s speaker is the parent teaching their children—and the reader—both the dangers of the world and how the world can be a place of kindness, beauty, and love.

Beauty and Hope

Appearing in the final lines of the poem, beauty supports a theme of hope. Throughout the poem, the speaker focuses on the terribleness of the world and on “the thousand delicious, ill-advised ways” (Line 3) one can shorten one’s life. Yet, following this acknowledgment of the world’s awfulness, the speaker concludes the poem with mentions of beauty and hope. Like any good parent, the speaker points out the small moments of beauty to their children, chirping like a bird about what’s wonderful about the world. “This place,” the speaker claims, “could be beautiful, / right?” (Lines 16-17) By including the question “right?” (Line 17), the speaker turns to their children and the reader to see if they agree that the world has the potential to be beautiful. It’s almost as though the speaker is unsure that this possibility is true and needs external validation.

The final lines of “Good Bones” are a transfer of responsibility. The older generation, represented by the speaker/parent, walks the younger generation (the children/readers) through the world and hands the torch to them, saying “You could make this place beautiful” (Line 17). The speaker’s generation has failed, but the younger generation has the potential to change the world. If the younger generation can remember that the earth has “good bones” (Line 16), the world might become more than “fifty percent terrible” (Line 6). If every person acts with more kindness, respect, and care for each other and the earth, the world will become a better place to live.