Bloom, Harold. W.S. Merwin. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2004. Print.
Bloom establishes that the poet sought to make a significant message regarding life in a metaphorical way. He uses various images including “fire” which makes the poem more “felt” by the reader that it is understood. The term “beam of a lightless star” is used as an abstraction to hide the actual bitterness of death and thus making is audience more casual and not tense. In addition, the author also makes a clear that the whole concept of life and death is just mystical and that he does not understand.
Perloff, Marjorie. Poetic License. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1990. Print.
Perloff explores the complexity of the poet and how much he has depicted
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"'Migration': The Solemn Art". Nytimes.com. N.p., 2005. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
Chiasson, in his analysis of Merwin’s poetry explains that he observed a more unrealistic time frame where he travels forward in time to explain some of the things that he anticipates to find in future. Chiasson was also established that the author was highly motivated by the enthusiastic that death was a major threat to his liberty and freedom. The last part of the poem shows that Merwin is also seemingly restless in a manner that serves to display his anxiety even as he anticipates his
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Postulating his death or even using the analogy of a presumed death of another individual, the author’s main incentive is to make vivid the whole concept of having died and how it feels. In his analysis, Shultz makes reference to the fact that the author might have used heavier words so as to present his message in the strongest way possible. In doing this, Merwin helps the reader to make a sober understanding of the poem and thus leave a long lasting impression. Throughout the poem, the author might be asking a hidden question of “what would happen if I died today and what would be the feeling”.
Thomas, Michael W. "Merwin's for the Anniversary of My Death." The Explicator 49.2 (1991): 126. ProQuest. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
In his analysis of the poem, Thomas first explains that Merwin intended to present the message in a paradoxical way. In one instance, for example, he states “I have passed away”. How he came to understand that he had come to his death, no one knows; maybe through psychic powers just as Thomas establishes. However, he introduces another key concept of how he shall view death thereafter; “tireless traveller”. In this regard, the author seeks to show that he has given in the idea that is death experience is already here and that he can only accept and travel on with time on the rather timeless journey.
University of Illinois,. "On "For The Anniversary
Millay’s poem “Thou famished grave” explores death’s inevitable success and the speaker’s resistance against it to gain victory within loss. The first way Millay achieves this is through the animalization of death. The poem describes death throughout with words such as, “roar” (2) and “jaws” (7), which leads to a portrayal of death as a predatory animal. A further description in the poem of the speaker as “prey” (9), helps to strengthen this portrayal. As a result, this animalistic depiction of predator and prey shows death’s advantage and dominance over life. In addition, it shows that the speaker is like a gazelle being hunted by a lion. They will not stand motionless and be defeated, but will run away to survive death and “aim not to be
Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. McQuade, Donald, ed., pp. 113-117.
...us 75.1 (Jan. 1991): 150-159. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 58. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.
n.p., n.d. N. pag. Bloom's Literature. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
An unknown author once wrote “Never take life too seriously; after all, no one gets out of it alive”. When reading this quote, there can almost be an immediate connection between two very good works of writing: Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” speech from Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, and the poem “Out, Out --” by Robert Frost. Both allude to the idea that a single life, in its totality, denotes nothing, and eventually, everyone’s candle of life is blown out. However, each poet approaches this idea from opposite perspectives. Frost writes of a young, innocent boy whose life ends suddenly and unexpectedly. His poem is dry and lacks emotion from anyone except the young boy. Whereas the demise of Shakespeare’s character, Macbeth, an evil man, has been anticipated throughout the entire play. Through these writings, we are able gather a little more insight as to how these poets perhaps felt about dying and life itself.
I will discuss the similarities by which these poems explore themes of death and violence through the language, structure and imagery used. In some of the poems I will explore the characters’ motivation for targeting their anger and need to kill towards individuals they know personally whereas others take out their frustration on innocent strangers. On the other hand, the remaining poems I will consider view death in a completely different way by exploring the raw emotions that come with losing a loved one.
The constant process of life and death, driven by an indestructible progression of time, explains the attitude of carpe diem expressed in three poems focused on human love being a fickle matter. Within the poems “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick, and “Youth’s the Season Made for Joys” by John Gay, the concept of how a shy attitude towards the inevitable end of all life is exposed as an inherently useless view. Nevertheless, though their primary themes and ideas of this constant procession of time are obviously expressed, the manner in which they do this, through figurative language and imagery, is the main point in which each of these three poems can be contrasted and examined
Stanley Corngold. New York: Bantam, 2004. Print.
6th ed. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. 118-29.
The speaker started the poem by desiring the privilege of death through the use of similes, metaphors, and several other forms of language. As the events progress, the speaker gradually changes their mind because of the many complications that death evokes. The speaker is discontent because of human nature; the searching for something better, although there is none. The use of language throughout this poem emphasized these emotions, and allowed the reader the opportunity to understand what the speaker felt.
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem composed by Thomas Gray over a period of ten years. Beginning shortly after the death of his close friend Richard West in 1742, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was first published in 1751. This poem’s use of dubbal entendre may lead the intended audience away from the overall theme of death, mourning, loss, despair and sadness; however, this poem clearly uses several literary devices to convey the author’s feelings toward the death of his friend Richard West, his beloved mother, aunt and those fallen soldiers of the Civil War. This essay will discuss how Gray uses that symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant.
The use of how nature affects them and their love for nature brings me to that conclusion. So what makes these pieces so powerful? Really, it's not the reasoning between life and death; it's the comparison of how other living things on Earth that we take for granted are similar to us as a human race. When these two poets look at a flower or a sunset, they see more than just a pretty flower or a beautiful sunset; they see what life is made up of, which is wonderful at times and ugly at other times. Like the saying goes, you can't have good without evil.
The. O’Brien, George. A. The "Forge" of the. Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition (2002): 1-2. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web.