The speaker in Graves' "Not Dead" is remembering a friend who has died, but the purpose in this remembering is to resurrect the friend.
Actually, the speaker does more than just remember, because in his act of dramatizing his friend’s spiritual qualities, he makes the friend’s presence something quite palpable.
Spiritual Presence
In the opening line of Robert Graves’ “Not Dead,” the speaker locates himself in a wood, “Walking through trees to cool my heat and pain.” He has gone for a simple walk to clear his head, to allow himself to mourn his loss. But instead of bemoaning that loss, he turns it around, claiming, “I know that David’s with me here again.” Instead of acknowledging the physical absence of his friend, he becomes engrossed in the spiritual reality of the friend’s presence.
The speaker asserts that his friend, David, exerts a positive influence on the universe: “All that is simple, happy, strong, he is.” Note clearly that he insists that David “is”—not was, as might be expected in remarking about the deceased.
Essence in Nature
In a way of supporting his astounding claim that David is, indeed, with him again, and that David “is,” the speaker suggests the qualities he finds in nature, in fact, resurrect the qualities of his friend. The speaker lovingly touches the “[r]ough bark of the friendly oak.” The oak is “friendly,” suggesting the same relationship he enjoyed with his friend. The speaker “caressingly” “strokes” the bark; the act of listening to and perhaps discussing ideas with his friend is brought back to mind by this simple natural act.
Then the speaker hears the babbling of a brook and avers that that sound is David’s voice. He continues finding his friend in the pleasant odor of the burning turf, in the sound of a bird melody and in the beauty of the primroses.
Simple, Happy, Strong
Then the speaker repeats the important line that describes his friend: “All that is simple, happy, strong, he is.” This line offers the summation of the life of the deceased, and it serves as a signifier for the speaker as he dramatizes David’s qualities in order to resurrect the spirit of his friend.
The final two lines, “Over the whole wood in a little while / Breaks his slow smile,” reveal the success of the speaker’s dramatic attempts to summon his friend’s spirit from the physical grave. The speaker can sense David’s smile in the “whole wood,” and the speaker’s mourning is transcended by the “simple, happy, strong” qualities that were and, more importantly, are the hallmark of his friend.
The speaker will still miss the physical presence of his friend, but the friend’s soul qualities will live on in the resurrection and drama of this speaker/poet’s creation. The speaker comes to realize that the soul is permanent, even though the body is not.
