Stanza 5 Summary

Lines 21-22

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

• The poem ends with a two-line stanza known in the wonderful world of poetry as a couplet.
• The concluding couplet begins with that refrain which, by now, is kind of ringing in our ears. That's probably what Thomas wanted—for the refrain to be as persistent (in every stanza) and regular (always in the same place in each stanza) as a ticking clock.
• In the poem's concluding couplet, the speaker is unable to tell "the lover's tomb" that… well, this is going to get complicated.
• First of all, the speaker is talking to a "tomb." Since tombs can't talk (or listen) this is another case of personification.
• And this isn't any old tomb. It's the "lover's tomb." In the previous stanza, love was one of those life sustaining, life-affirming elements (along with water and blood). Love represents life.
• In the final couplet, since it is "the lover's tomb," it looks like love is dead. It's another example of the force's (time's) ability to conquer all.
• But what exactly is the speaker unable to tell the lover's tomb? Good question. Let's explore.
• It's hard not to picture that death shroud from line 13 when we read "sheet." Sure, "sheet" sounds more bed-like and bed sheets are nice (we love us a good nap). But the fact that a "tomb" is a final resting place turns any other bed-sleep imagery into a death metaphor. A tomb is a bed; death is sleep. (That sheet doesn't seem as cozy now, does it?)
• Also: worms live underground. Bodies are buried underground. Ever heard the expression "worm food"? Well, it comes to mind here. The speaker is going to end up worm food just like the lover. The worms will "go at" (eat, bore into) the sheet wrapped around the speaker's dead body, just as they will the lover's and everyone else's. 
• "Crooked worm" echoes "crooked rose" from stanza 1. Coincidence? We think not.
• The rose—beautiful, vibrant, and existing above ground—is made "crooked," eaten away in a sense, by age and time.
• The worm is underground and also "crooked."
• The identical descriptions suggest the worm, despite being an agent of decay and destruction, is also susceptible, a victim of time. This reinforces the idea that the force (time) conquers all. But wait, there's more.
• This is gross, but the worm is eating the death to live. How's that for the interconnectedness of life and death?
• For this speaker, everywhere in life there is death, and in death there is life. Time, the force, ensures the continuation of the cycle and thus the interconnectedness of all things.
• The flower or the worm, sickness or health, love or loneliness, life or death, the heavens and the earth—it's all the same. By juxtaposing all these different elements, Thomas explores how they are all connected as part of one great terrifying, exhilarating, beautiful, ugly experience.