Summary

“The Bean Eaters” opens by describing the typical meal of an “old yellow pair” (1). As indicated by the title, this meal is beans. Their dinner is “a casual affair” (2), eaten off “Plain chipware” (3) on a table made of “plain and creaking wood” (3), using “Tin flatware” (4).

The second quatrain, or four-line stanza, zooms out from this particular activity for a broader perspective on the couple and their shared life. They are “Mostly Good” (5), but they have also “lived their day” (6). Nevertheless, they “keep on putting on their clothes / And putting things away” (8).

The third and final stanza is a tercet, meaning it has three lines, the last of which is so long that it was originally printed across three lines, with a hanging indent on the last two. The stanza begins by mentioning “remembering…” (9) as another habitual activity of the Bean Eaters, which they do...