n. ôLuminescent blues and greens of waterö encircle a woman ôwhose head is turning to a skullö, but the narrator makes a plea for acceptance of all natural phenomenon including death: ôIf death is everywhere we look, / at least letÆs marry it to beautyö (Pastan 2002).
Though PastanÆs personas may find death everywhere, they still search for meaning in spite of it. Often the speaker of her poems is searching for answers regarding what is meaningful or lasting if death is inevitable and takes everything away. In White Lies, we see that one of PastanÆs answers is the love shared between human beings. Relationships that endure provide meaning to life in spite of the inevitability of death. In White Lies, the mature narrator reviews a lasting relationship and recalls, ôWhen I swore, then, / that I loved you, I wasnÆt sure / I meant it, though I mean it nowö (Pastan 2002). However, the narrator discovers in the course of this recollection that absolute truth or knowledge may elude the capacity of human beings. Yet in ôloveÆs unblinking perjuryö, ôfact and fiction smile / and embrace-- / identical twinsö (Pastan 2002).
PastanÆs musings on aging and mortality are evident in one of the collectionÆs strongest works, The Vanity of Nam
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