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In the first stanza of this piece the speaker proposes a possible future scenario. It is not one that he particular wants to come to pass, but is a situation he can see happening. He sets the scene by imagining that he takes a piece of hair from his lover. Before he dies, he winds this around his wrist like a bracelet. The man is buried that way. He remains at peace until his “grave is broke up again. ” This refers to the dirt that covers him being dug up and a “second guest,” or another body buried there. This event is meant to happen sometime in the far future when his own remains would be mostly decomposed. For whatever reason, these grave diggers did not expect to find a body. After doing so, they notice the “bracelet of bright hair about the bone” of his wrist. Unlike the rest of the body, it has not decomposed at all. This is a testament to the regard in which the speaker holds his lover. She has some kind of otherworldly power that transcends time, or at least this representation of her does. The stanza continues on to describe the part of this proposed narrative that the speaker finds amusing. It is likely, he believes, that these grave differs will look on the hair around his wrist and make up a story about it. Perhaps they will believe that the man wore “this device… / To make their souls… / Meet at this grave, and make a little stay.” They propose that the hair worked some kind of magic to reunite them. This is a humorous possibility to the speaker who knows he would never attempt something like this, nor does he seem to believe it would ever work. The speaker is passing judgment on superstition and crafted, magic thinking.