When I die, I will see the lining of the world.
The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset.
The poets expresses a boundless hope, one that exposes the ultimate duplicity of a passing world, one in which those how live on "this side" are confronting.
"Lining" emphasizes the realization of the belief that a higher order of life has always persisted in the face of the mundane. "Lining" speaks of the cover on the inside, as if a grand texture, a beautiful embroidery waiting to be discovered, has yet to be revealed, as a coat worn outside must only show its outside. The structure beneath that supports, the explains everything, yet remains unseen.
The "other side" is beyond bird, representing biological life, birds who in their times and seasons move about the earth, in cycles which capture a calm beauty, no matter how repetitive the patterns. Mountains represent the deliberate elements of our world, not just the natural phenomena which inspire wonder, but also the institutions, like Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were given to the Jews, or the Catholic Church, which claims the Apostle Peter as its founder. By listing "sunset" in the final of three terms, the poet indicates the twilight of established orders, the end of reigns and dynasties, the fading of hopes and dreams, and the sad certainty that all beautiful things, even as they manifest a greater gloryin their diminution, must ultimately disappear and give way to blackness and night. The rising momentousness of each element in the second stanza would cause great discontentment, but for thT word "beyond", which signals that a greater glory than nature, than institutions, than the magnificent beauty of the end of things, awaits the poet.
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