Good Bones, Maggie Smith: Summary, Analysis & Themes

Good Bones, Maggie Smith: Summary, Analysis & Themes

Good Bones stands as one of the most well-known poems by contemporary American poet Maggie Smith (b. 1977) and serves as the title poem for her acclaimed 2017 poetry collection. First published in 2016, the poem artfully reflects on life’s darker aspects, such as its brevity and inherent difficulties, and portrays a speaker striving to shield her young children from these harsh truths. Good Bones by Maggie Smith Poem Text Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate, though I keep this from my children. For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird. For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep th…