Help with a poem

[tinkker]

I need a little help with a poem Called "The Young Wife" by Derek Walcott. I am comparing this poem to a short story with the same theme different reactions, and I would like to know my understanding of it is right. So I would love to hear another analysis of this poem.
TheYoung Wife, by Derek Walcott
Make all your sorrow neat,
plump pillows, soothe the corners
of her favorite coverlet.
Write to her mourners.

At dusk, after the office
travel an armchair's ridge,
the valley of the shadow in the sofas,
the drapes' dead foliage.

Ah, but the mirror--the mirror
which you believe has seen
the traitor you feel you are--
clouds, through you wipe it clean!

She has gone with that visitor
that sat beside her,like wind
clicking shut the bedroom door;
arm in arm they went,

leaving her wedding photograph in
its lace frame, a face smiling at
itself. And the telephone
without a voice. The weight

we bear on this heavier side
of the grave brings no comfort.
But the vow that was said
in white lace has brought

you now to the very edge
of that promise; now, for some,
the hooks in the howthorn hedge
break happily into blossom

and the heart into grief.
The sun slants on a kitchen floor.
You keep setting a fork and knife
at her place for supper.

The children close in the space
made by a chair removed.
and nothing takes her place,
loved and now deeper loved.

The children accept your answer,
they startle you when they lauph.
She sits there smiling that cancer
kills everything but Love.

[RonBee]

It expresses the feelings of breavement after the loss of a mate. The symbolism of the empty place at the table and the empty chair is certainly interesting and effectively expresses the sense of loss.

~R

[tinkker]

I was hoping for a little more then the obvious. Something in the meaning that could be missed. Like a picture smiling at its self. just more please

[RonBee]

"The weight

we bear on this heavier side
of the grave brings no comfort."

He misses his wife so much that he wants to be with her. Perhaps he has thoughts of suicide.

Hm.

[tinkker]

What about the reference of the hawthorne hedge; what do you think that means?

[RonBee]

I have no idea.