Bussey holds a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and a bachelor’s degree in English literature. She is an independent writer specializing in literature. In the following essay, she explores the theme of time in Brock-Broido’s “After Raphael.”

Lucie Brock-Broido’s “After Raphael” relates the grief experienced by a woman who recently lost her mother after having already lost her father. The speaker feels alone and orphaned, even though she is an adult. The speaker moves from describing her sense of pain and loss to the realization that one day, she will also grow old and have to face her own mortality. What ties these themes of grief and mortality together is time, a subject that is a subtle undercurrent running through the poem. Brock-Broido addresses it through imagery and the speaker’s feelings.

The clock...