Missing Dates by William Empson

The poem suggests that it's not the big failures or intense struggles that ruin a person, but rather the gradual, unnoticed buildup of wasted time and missed chances. These small losses accumulate over time until they become deadly — that's the 'poison' flowing through the veins.

A villanelle is a 19-line poem featuring two refrains that recur throughout, culminating in the last quatrain. This form is intentionally obsessive — the same lines keep coming back. Empson leverages that obsessive nature to illustrate his argument: the poem builds and repeats much like waste accumulates over a lifetime.

It suggests that the remnants of an unfulfilled life don’t vanish—they linger and cause harm. 'Waste' refers to both the act of squandering time and the leftover material that comes from it. The repetition in the line ('the waste remains, the waste remains') reflects the constant accumulation that the poem portrays.

He's not really blaming any external cause. The poem feels more like a diagnosis than a condemnation. The waste stems from a lack of action, from not having 'fire,' and from letting important moments slip away. It's about failing to live fully, rather than a crime perpetrated by someone else.

Empson was in his late twenties or early thirties when he wrote it, living abroad and witnessing the political decline in Europe. There’s likely a personal aspect here — a feeling that his own time and energy were being drained — but the poem addresses broader themes, serving as a commentary on human existence rather than merely a personal reflection.

Both poems are villanelles that explore mortality and the passage of time, employing the form's repetitions to evoke a sense of urgency and inevitability. Thomas confronts death with anger and calls for defiance, while Empson takes a cooler, more resigned approach, identifying the issue without a rallying cry. They represent two distinct reactions to the same reality.

It refers to a lack of inner vitality — the drive, passion, or energy that enables someone to fully engage with life. Empson describes this absence of fire not as a neutral or peaceful state, but as a hollowness that screams or withers away. It's the condition that permits waste to build up.

'Missing dates' highlights the poem's main focus: not death per se, but the life events that were left unfulfilled. A missing date signifies an absence, a void in the calendar. The title presents the poem's theme as something understated and bureaucratic rather than theatrical — which is precisely the intention.