The question mark is a sort of wildcard: the word ‘wh?’ can stand for ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘where’, even ‘why’ (or something you decided to make up). It’s also there to indicate a question word, though. This is what’s known as pun-ctuation.

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no one will want to stroke it gently with their fingers.

… and our love-lives.

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all that hair’s beauty will be gone;

… our beauty …

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For soon your head will have lost its hair;

The last three lines of this poem were not in the original: someone (no one knows who or why) added them in the thirteenth century. They introduce an oddly sensual dimension: in addition to losing our friends and our freedom, we’ll lose our hair …

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For soon you’ll be loathsome and disgusting to look at.

The Grave-poet wasn’t the only one to muse on the transience of beauty. Check Vercelli Homily X if you don’t believe me:

Forþan nis naht þysses middangeardes wlite and þysse worulde wela; he is hwilendlic and yfellic and forwordenlic …
[So this world’s beauty and wealth are worthless: they’re fleeting and evil and damnable.]

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and let light in around you …

This is a particularly short line, so most people think there’s a bit missing.

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who’ll ever unlock the door for you

Remember that death has the key.

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who’ll ever want to check to see how you’re settling into your house,

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You won’t have any friends then who’ll want to visit you,

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And so you’ll be laid to rest, and so you’ll be completely disgusting to your friends.

The poet introduces the theme of social interactions, which is a key issue for the Anglo-Saxons. Like “The Wanderer”, “The Grave” shows how even the relationships we value the most will eventually come to an end; unlike “The Wanderer”, there’s still a social relation going on, only this time it’s negative. Your friends will hate you when you’re dead.

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