A Polar Explorer

All the huskies are eaten. There is no space

left in the diary, And the beads of quick
words scatter over his spouse's sepia-shaded face
adding the date in question like a mole to her lovely cheek.
Next, the snapshot of his sister. He doesn't spare his kin:
what's been reached is the highest possible latitude!
And, like the silk stocking of a burlesque half-nude
queen, it climbs up his thigh: gangrene.

-Joseph Brodsky

This poem is about a man who is exploring arctic land and has been lost or trapped. He's eaten his dogs, filled up his diary, and now he's looking at old photographs of his family members. Just like the stocking on a woman in one of his photographs, gangrene is climbing up his leg. His time is running out.

Brodsky obviously wanted to portray a picture of a man either fictional or historical with this poem. He did a very good job with imagery, and the mental picture he creates is very vivid.

Literary Devices:

"...like the silk stocking of a burlesque half-nude
queen, it climbs up his thigh: gangrene". - Simile