ts in a reading that looks more deeply into the supposed timelessness of death. But the more intensive reading seems to force an underlying skepticism into view, for the initial reading, it appears, confuses the terms of the resurrection. The bodies in the tombs may seem to await resurrection, but it is nowhere said that the waiting by these "meek members of the Resurrection" is an active waiting. The bodies in their tombs are inert and untenanted, and careful examination of the poem shows that there is no counterclaim to the natural fact of the process of disintegration that takes place after death.
With the death of the body the soul enters eternal life and awaits the reunion with the body (prefigured/promised by the resurrection of Christ's body following his earthly death). The body in the tomb disintegrates in the course of time. The necessity of its (miraculous) reintegration at the moment of resurrection is a point the poem appears to skirt. It seems to be implied, on first reading, that the bodies are somehow engaged in waiting. Disintegration of the body and the temporary absence of the soul from the body are not, after al
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