Alan Seeger was an American poet. He lived during what is known to us as the most crucial time in man's history. The poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Death," was actually written during world war one. Without a doubt, this poem made me give death many divers thoughts. What I conclude after reading this poem is that Alan Seeger wanted people to know that dying for your country was the noblest attempt in which death takes place. All this to say that being a patriot is far more than just a privilege.
The first stanza is the most striking of the three it makes a great relation between, spring, blossoms, and birth. Of course, we must not forget that at some point or another it is inevitable to escape death. All this makes a link with war, all the tons of people that died in war have them too meet death. Just as spring come around every year, it also brings about new faces and new challenges to life. These new people are probably the ones that were much to young to take part in it previously.
Stanza two, takes you through the stages of death. With the angel of death, nearly holding you hand all along the way and reassuring you that everything will be fine. That you are of course doing this for your land and people. This too made me have a visual image of dead people scattered around on the fields, up on the hills. So helpless, dead and left all alone for the winter's cold. Yet, come spring their bodies no long their, probably decomposed and the first flowers of spring appearing; each one representing a faithful citizen.
The deep complexity of its message is furthered by Olds’ use of metaphor. In describing the unburied corpses strewn about the cemetery, she notes a “hand reaching out / with no sign of peace, wanting to come back.” Through indirect metaphor, she is able to not only bring emotion to the stiffness of a frozen hand, but ponder a greater question—whether the “eternal rest” of death is peace at all. Despite the war, despite “the bread made of glue and sawdust,” and despite “the icy winter and the siege,” those passed still long for life. Human cruelty and the horrors of existence permeate even the sanctity of death. In war, nothing is
The narrator is presented as this strong figure at first, but the piece tears away this wall brick by brick. In stanza six when they are coming back from Mexico, the narrator says the drugs “might help him live longer.” The biggest turn of hopelessness is in stanza 8 for the narrator. His brother falls into a coma and his brother’s lover cries in his arms and he “Wonder(s) how much longer you will be able to be strong.”(Lassell 481) It only progresses only further when the narrator says: “Offer God anything to bring your brother back. Know you have nothing God could possibly want.”(Lassell 481) The narrator becomes almost emotionless during the funeral of his brother, and it shows that this sense of hopelessness has grown even larger, to the fact where he stands in silence and stares at the casket. During the funeral, he thinks to himself “Know that your brother 's life was not what you imagined.”(Lassell
After her diagnosis of chronic kidney failure in 2004, psychiatrist Sally Satel lingered in the uncertainty of transplant lists for an entire year, until she finally fell into luck, and received her long-awaited kidney. “Death’s Waiting List”, published on the 5th of May 2006, was the aftermath of Satel’s dreadful experience. The article presents a crucial argument against the current transplant list systems and offers alternative solutions that may or may not be of practicality and reason. Satel’s text handles such a topic at a time where organ availability has never been more demanded, due to the continuous deterioration of the public health. With novel epidemics surfacing everyday, endless carcinogens closing in on our everyday lives, leaving no organ uninflected, and to that, many are suffering, and many more are in desperate request for a new organ, for a renewed chance. Overall, “Death’s Waiting List” follows a slightly bias line of reasoning, with several underlying presumptions that are not necessarily well substantiated.
Michael MacDonald’S All Souls is a heart wrenching insider account of growing up in Old Country housing projects located in the south of Boston, also known as Southie to the locals. The memoir takes the reader deep inside the world of Southie through the eyes of MacDonald. MacDonald was one of 11 children to grow up and deal with the many tribulations of Southie, Boston. Southie is characterized by high levels of crime, racism, and violence; all things that fall under the category of social problem. Social problems can be defined as “societal induced conditions that harms any segment of the population. Social problems are also related to acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in society” (Long). The social problems that are present in Southie are the very reasons why the living conditions are so bad as well as why Southie is considered one of the poorest towns in Boston. Macdonald’s along with his family have to overcome the presence of crime, racism, and violence in order to survive in the town they consider the best place in the world.
In this poem the late summer leads her soldiers, the daisies, into battle with autumnal frost, which ends with the daisies becoming the casualties and summer and autumn make a vow. Summer is the general that leads her soldiers into battle repeatedly without a win. Similar to the thrown away lives of the soldiers in the Civil War who were repeatedly sacrificed when the commanding generals suffered loss after loss. In addition, the Civil War had ended on “vow.” Suddenly in the third stanza, Dickinson’s poem shifts the “seasonal cyclicality of death” as autumn is now thought of posthumous (Kohler 46). The tormented landscapes, fallen figureheads, and the constant battle with large numbers of death provide Dickinson with an agitated autumn, and
In the second stanza he says “By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing; she had stiffened already, almost cold. I dragged her off” (5-8). In this stanza he is giving great details of what he is doing and what’s happing to the deer. When reading this stanza is like watching a movie, you can see the tail lights and you can see the deer and you can see him pulling the deer out of the road. Also in the second stanza he says “she was large in the belly” (8). This must have meant that the dead dear was
Firstly I will be exploring metaphor as it is used so much in this poem. The first metaphor which I will examine is “Haunting Flares” on line 3 of the first stanza. This quote has so many connotations, my first opinion on this was that the flares which the enemy are firing to light up the battlefield are said to be representing the souls of the soldiers fallen comrades. This could also be said to represent the power the enemy has on their own mortality as the bright flares would light up the battle-field exposing everything to their view, this indicates that the enemy always seem to have power upon the soldiers, almost godly. The second metaphor which I will explore is: “An ecstasy of fumbling” in line one of the second stanza.
I find this poem to be exceptional in its meaning, in fact the verse that comes to mind when thinking of this poem is Psalm 51:17 “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” (Holy Bible, New Testament) I believe that the speaker has meaning behind his words he knows that a complete peace and joy come from the awareness of one’s sin, he also believes in the submission of himself to God and the humility of heart.
Although, I wished that the poem included more about the resurrection. It was good that it discussed Jesus return and the Day of Judgment, to encourage man’s repentance and salvation in Christ. I wondered if this poet who must have lived sometime in the Early Middle Ages actually had a dream where he imagined a tree speaking to him about the death and resurrection of Christ and then he wrote it down. If that was the case, then I can understand why the poem is not perfectly accurate and somewhat jumbled, when compared to scripture. Often our thoughts are jumbled, when we dream. The order of events seems to be a little offset. For example, the earth did not tremble, until after Jesus spirit left Him. The poem appears to put the trembling ahead of Jesus death. However, there is a lot of the good, the true, and the beautiful in this poem. It celebrates the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross and it encourages us to look to Him on the cross, so we don’t forget how much He loves us. Also, it encourages us in our faith and knowing that Jesus will return someday, to take us into eternal glory with Him. It was good that the poem concluded with the Dreamer feeling enthusiastic about the cross, looking forward to eternal glory, and desiring to share the good news with others. This is the way that
This essay is anchored on the goal of looking closer and scrutinizing the said poem. It is divided into subheadings for the discussion of the analysis of each of the poem’s stanzas.
...nsight to address the lack of courage and faith that plagues every human being. “The poem succeeds admirably in registering a mood not merely of disillusionment, but of personal weakness” (Morace 950). Without the faith and courage to face the final judgment, and move on to the afterlife, one will be left to linger in purgatory.
The tone in the first stanza is of joyousness and excitement, as people make their way to heaven. Dickinson uses the words “gayer,” “hallelujah,” and “singing” to emphasize the uplifting feeling here. It could be argued that this is the point in the humans’ lives (or deaths, or afterlives, depending on how one looks at it) when they reach the pinnacle of happiness, for they have finally entered heaven. The humans, now dead, would then acquire wings, immortality, and an angelic status that rises far above that of humans. Much like Dickinson’s other poems, this one uses metaphors to represent similar things, such as “home,” which represents “heaven,” “snow,” which represents the “clouds” on which heaven resides, and “vassals,” which represents the “angels” who serve God.
He depicts a world of beauty. Frost introduces nature as his theme which he personifies using the pronoun “her.” In other words, nature is a female who cannot keep hold of anything because nature changes continually. During springtime, nature is compared to gold because it is glowing, attractive and beautiful. Gold is a symbol of great value and radiant beauty. New leaves grow yellow as gold blossoms before they get their green color. They start as flower buds. This visual image assures that the golden moment is the most precious because it is transitory. These golden flower buds don't last for a long time as they turn into green and become leaves. Metaphorically speaking, the color green represents childhood which is the golden age. So, youth is a treasure. Alliteration is used to make the poem sounds more musical and such a thing enhances the beauty of nature and childhood. However, it is hard to remain youthful. “Early leaf” shows the outcome of youth and “flower” shows its beauty. The image of the golden flower and the leaf are signs of spring. The color symbolizes everything that is glowing and pure. In the first half of the poem, Frost presents a visual image depicting how new leaves come out as yellow or golden blossoms before they grow into green leaves. This beautiful time is very short and precise because the beauty of the flowers will fade away and the
...and the way that the opposing sides think of each other is awful. The fact that one side is praying for disaster to come on their enemies isn’t showing God’s love and at the end of the poem it says, “We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love.” It is out of love for their own soldiers but not for the soldiers on the other side. This poem shows the real aspects of people’s feelings about war. Many people don’t want their own side to be crushed, but they don’t care if the other side does get crushed.
The tone in the first 11 stanzas of the poem seems very resigned; the speaker has accepted that the world is moving on without them. They says things like “I don’t reproach the spring for starting up again” and “I don’t resent the view for its vista of a sun-dazzled bay”. By using words like “resent” and “reproach”, the author indirectly implies that the speaker has a reason to dislike beautiful things. The grief that has affected the speaker so much hasn’t affected life itself and they has come to accept that. The author chooses to use phrases like ‘it doesn’t pain me to see” and “I respect their right” which show how the speaker has completely detached themself from the word around them. While everything outside is starting to come back to life, the speaker is anything but lively. “I expect nothing from the depths near the woods.” They don’t expect anything from the world and want the world to do the same thing in return. This detachment proves that the speaker feels resigned about themself and the world around