Most poets write about time as a river or a thief. Ghose writes about time as a stomach. The earth “moves on” not in the sense of geological drift, but in the sense of a snake swallowing a rat—slowly, inexorably, digesting everything. This is a visceral, uncomfortable temporality.

The famous smile decomposes. The white bones begin to weather, becoming porous like the stones of ancient ruins.

The final stanzas are heavy with the realization that the poet hasn't helped the man; he has only "bottled" his misery for display. 4. Literary Devices

Eliot saw decay as a spiritual crisis—a lack of water, a lack of faith. Ghose sees decay as a biological normalcy. Eliot’s dead are buried and complain. Ghose’s dead are buried and become soil. Eliot’s poem is a diagnosis of societal sickness; Ghose’s poem is an acceptance of planetary health.