The Groundhog

"The Groundhog" Poem by Richard Eberhart

Eberhart first published "The Groundhog" in his poetry collection Listener in 1934. It was met with instant success and would become his most famous poem. "The Groundhog" was later republished in Eberhart's 1942 collection Sound and Idea.

The poem's central focus is on death and the fragility of life. Eberhart witnessed both of these things when he watched his mother die from lung cancer. The young Eberhart was often the person his family relied on to care for his mother as her health worsened. She died when he was 18 and a freshman in college. Eberhart transferred schools and started writing poetry shortly thereafter.

Eberhart is often called a timeless poet because most of his poetry focuses on universal themes like death and the tension between innocence and experience. Although he was alive for almost the entirety of the 20th century, Eberhart's poetry rarely reacted to the historical events happening around him. His poem "The Groundhog" is a perfect example of how Eberhart uses timeless, natural experiences to present his major themes.

"The Groundhog" Poem

Below is Richard Eberhart's poem "The Groundhog" in its entirety.

"The Groundhog" Poem Summary

While the speaker is walking through the fields in June, he stumbles upon a dead groundhog. The groundhog's body has just started to decompose as maggots eat it away. The speaker begins to think about his own mortality and how fragile life is. He feels unity and love towards the groundhog because they are both animals that will eventually decompose and no longer exist in this world. He also hates the groundhog because it reminds him of his own inevitable death.

The speaker returns to the groundhog three times over the course of three years. When he returns to see the groundhog in Autumn, he notices that it is just the "hulk" of the groundhog's body that remains. The next summer, there is only hair and bones. Three years later, there is nothing left where the groundhog once was. The speaker compares the groundhog to famous people in history whose bodies have all given way to death. He once again considers the fragility of human life.

Fig. 1 - The speaker is fascinated by a dead groundhog and the implications of his own mortality.

"The Groundhog" Poem Analysis

The literary devices in "The Groundhog" work together to establish the mournful, solemn tone of the poem. The speaker uses symbolism, metaphor, simile, and allusion to show that all living things will eventually die. The poem's tone is solemn and mournful because the speaker comes face to face with his own mortality when he witnesses the fragility of another animal. He realizes there is nothing he can do to escape death and that his own life is fleeting.

Symbolism

The groundhog is much more than a large rodent lying dead in the field. In the poem, it functions as a symbol for the inevitable death that awaits all living things. When he sees the groundhog, the speaker must face his own mortality. He notes,

The word "our" (4) is very important because it shows that death is a shared experience. It is not limited to one living thing or another, but it is something that everything will eventually succumb to.

The speaker says that he watches the groundhog "Half with loathing, half with a strange love" (11). He feels ambivalence toward the dead animal because he resents that he is doomed to the same fate (as all animals are) but also feels a sense of unity. The groundhog is thus a symbol for all living beings who live fragile, temporal lives.

Metaphor

The use of metaphor in the poem is disturbing, but it juxtaposes the activity of life with the stillness of death. The speaker compares the groundhog's dead body filled with maggots to a bubbling cauldron:

Being dead, the groundhog would be still and lifeless. But because it has these other life forms (albeit disgusting ones), the maggots transform a motionless, inactive corpse into an active force. Like a cauldron, there is power and activity, even within the dead animal. The speaker implies that life gives way to death, which gives way to more life as the cycle continues.

Fig. 2 - The speaker compares the groundhog's body to a seething cauldron.

The speaker uses metaphor again later in the poem to compare the groundhog and himself to the life cycle of plants. When he comes back in Autumn, the speaker notices that the animal is mostly decomposed with "The sap gone out of the groundhog" (27). He later says of himself, "My hand capped a withered heart" (44). When young and healthy, plants are full of sap and nutritious liquids that keep them strong. But when they wither due to lack of water, disease, or old age, they are dying. In the same way, both the groundhog and the speaker face the cycle of life.

It is also worth noting that it is specifically the speaker's heart that is withered. Hearts are symbolic of the center of emotion. Because the heart is withered, the speaker has come to terms with his ultimate fate. He still fears death and mourns the loss of life, but he has come to accept it instead of running from it.

Personification

Personification makes the speaker's vitality come alive. When the speaker is examining the dead groundhog, he is acutely aware that he is alive and the animal is not. He can feel his life source thrumming in his body:

"Vigour" is personified and capitalized, making it a proper noun and a powerful force. The speaker's vigor is so powerful it competes with the sun's energy. But his body's current power makes his ultimate demise all the more dramatic. Over time, the speaker's vigor will falter and fail, before finally succumbing to death.

Simile

The speaker uses simile to show how the human-made world succumbs to nothing in the face of Time. He says,

The speaker compares the groundhog's bones to human architecture, emphasizing how each are beautiful but temporary. Both the bones and the buildings that humans design will give way and decompose to nothing. He compares his study of the bones to a geometer, a person skilled in geometry. Like a geometers attempt to make sense out of shapes, he studies the bones for answers. In the end, all he finds is a reminder that everything in this life is temporary.

Fig. 3 - The speaker compares the groundhog's bones to beautiful architecture.

Allusion

The poem ends with several allusions to famous people and civilizations. This shows that even great, powerful people who once ruled the world are not immune to death. Like the groundhog, they have died, and eventually there will be no trace of them left on earth. The speaker says,

China and Greece were both ancient civilizations that once prospered. Alexander refers to the world conqueror Alexander the Great (356 BCE-323 BCE). Montaigne refers to Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), a philosopher. And Saint Theresa refers to Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), a nun and writer.

"The Groundhog" Poem Themes

The main themes in "The Groundhog" are the fragility of life and the certainty of death.

The fragility of life

The speaker feels a sort of kinship with the groundhog because they are united in the fragility of their lives. He realizes that, like the groundhog, his life is delicate. Although he is young and spirited now, the vigor will one day be gone. No matter what he does, the speaker will forever be restricted by the fragile state of life. He witnesses this directly with the groundhog as he watches it decay:

Our physical bodies are powerless against the passage of time because living things are fragile. Like the groundhog whose body succumbs to rot, the human body is susceptible to the force of time.

The certainty of death

While life is fragile, death is inevitable. At the end of the poem, the speaker thinks about all the powerful, intelligent, and pious people that have come before him. But despite their status as influential people, they have all died. He also considers ancient civilizations that once ruled the world. The ancient Greeks and Chinese people defined what life looks like today, but they are long since gone. No matter what the speaker does, he will not be able to escape death.

"The Groundhog" Meaning

"The Groundhog" examines how all living things are connected through life and death. People and groundhogs live completely different lives, but they both will ultimately die, like every other living thing. Even famous people who do important things and change the world while they are alive are not safe from the reaches of death.

Coming to terms with his mortality is hard for the speaker. He both hates and loves the groundhog because its death is a reminder of what will inevitably happen to him. Life is a fragile thing that can be extinguished at any given moment. So while the speaker knows he is healthy and full of life now, he must also accept that death is inevitable. By the end of the poem, he has come to accept death as an inescapable aspect of life. But accepting his own mortality makes the speaker's heart "wither" as he feels defeated and knocked down by this knowledge.

Fig. 4 - The poem is about mortality and certain death.