Ada Limón's poem "Dead Stars" was published in her 2018 book The Carrying. In it, the speaker observes stars in the night sky, thinks about the idea that humans are comprised of stardust, and imagines how people might rise to their full potential of strength and goodness. "Dead Stars" is a free verse poem containing twenty-eight lines, most of which are rather long, arranged into fifteen stanzas. Limón combines a conversational tone and suburban setting with vast, poetic images and hypothetical questions.
The Carrying received critical acclaim and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Ada Limón became the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States in 2022. "Dead Stars" features the natural imagery and theme of human resilience that appear in poems such as "Instructions on Not Giving Up" and "The Leash" and have made her writing beloved. Limón is of Mexican-American descent and lives in Lexington, Kentucky.
