Personal Response to “Lament for a Son”
“I didn’t know how much I loved him until he was gone” (pg. 13).
“It’s so wrong, so profoundly wrong, for a parent to die before its parents. It’s hard enough to bury our parents. But that we expect. Our parents belong in our past, our children belong to our future. We do not visualize our future without them. How can I bury my son, my future, one of the next in line? He was meant to bury me!” (pg. 16).
“Is there no one who can slow it down, make it stop, turn it back? Must we all be swept forever on, away, beyond, beauty lost, and love, sorrow, until the measure of our losses has been filled?” (pg. 23).
“There is a hole in the world now. In the place where he was, there’s now just nothing. A center like
57).
“The worst days now are holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, birthdays, weddings, January 31---days meant as festivals of happiness and joy now are days of tears” (pg. 61).
“Each person’s suffering has its own quality” (pg. 72).
“We are one in suffering. Some are wealthy, some bright; some athletic, some admired. But we all suffer” (pg. 89).
“Slowly I begin to see that there is something more as well. To believe in Christ’s rising and death’s dying is also to live with the power and the challenge to rise up now from all our dark graves of suffering love” (pg. 92).
“Everything is charged with the potential of a reminder. There’s no forgetting” (pg. 98). “I didn’t know how much I loved him until he was gone” (pg. 13), really resonated with me and the loss of my brother. Only having one sibling and losing him was so hard. I never realized how much he meant to me until he was not here anymore. Being my only sibling, we were close. Even though he was nine years older than me, we still where all each other had. We went through a lot together and he was always there for me when I needed him. I have faith that one day I will see him again, and I know he is watching over me and my children until that day
In the place where he was, there’s now just nothing. A center like no other, of memory and hope and knowledge and affection which once inhabited this earth is gone” (pg. 33). This quote resonates with all the losses in my life. Every time I have lost someone it leaves a hole in my world. Ever since my brother died, there has been a huge hole in my life. When my grandpa died it got bigger and then again when my grandma died. Then once again when I lost my favorite aunt, that hole grew. The grief we all go through is different for each of us, but we all are missing something once we lose a loved one. As time goes on the hole heals a little but my life will never be the same without these people in it. Wolterstorff’s faith resonates with me as all we have is the memories we made while our loved ones were
The article "“Whoever We Are, Loss Finds us and Defines Us”, by Anna Quindlen, invokes the necessary emotions needed to understand an agree with the notions stated about death and grief. Yes, Anna Quindlen succeeded in proving her position by her use of emotion, credibility as an accomplished writer, experiences with death and grief and her writing style. Some people live with grief for the rest of their lives, such as Anna Quindlen and some of her examples, while others can overcome the fight. Effectively using all three elements in this article, Quindlen started her engine, shifted this article into gear and ultimately won the race.
... seeing and feeling it’s renewed sense of spring due to all the work she has done, she was not renewed, there she lies died and reader’s find the child basking in her last act of domestication. “Look, Mommy is sleeping, said the boy. She’s tired from doing all out things again. He dawdled in a stream of the last sun for that day and watched his father roll tenderly back her eyelids, lay his ear softly to her breast, test the delicate bones of her wrist. The father put down his face into her fresh-washed hair” (Meyer 43). They both choose death for the life style that they could no longer endure. They both could not look forward to another day leading the life they did not desire and felt that they could not change. The duration of their lifestyles was so pain-staking long and routine they could only seek the option death for their ultimate change of lifestyle.
Throughout the lives of most people on the planet, there comes a time when there may be a loss of love, hope or remembrance in our lives. These troublesome times in our lives can be the hardest things we go through. Without love or hope, what is there to live for? Some see that the loss of hope and love means the end, these people being pessimistic, while others can see that even though they feel at a loss of love and hope that one day again they will feel love and have that sense of hope, these people are optimistic. These feelings that all of us had, have been around since the dawn of many. Throughout the centuries, the expression of these feelings has made their ways into literature, novels, plays, poems, and recently movies. The qualities of love, hope, and remembrance can be seen in Emily Bronte’s and Thomas Hardy’s poems of “Remembrance” “Darkling Thrush” and “Ah, Are you Digging on my Grave?”
Today, the most difficult day in my family’s life, we gather to say farewell to our son, brother, fiancé and friend. To those of you here and elsewhere who know Dylan you already are aware of the type of person he was and these words you will hear are already in your memory. To those who were not as fortunate, these words will give you a sense of the type of man he was and as an ideal for which we should strive. My son has been often described as a gentle soul. He was pure of heart and had great sensitivity for the world around him. He had a way with people that made them feel comfortable around him and infected others to gravitate toward him. Dylan exuded kindness and pulled generosity and altruism out from everyone he touched. He was everyone's best friend.
“Every part of my body hurts. Except my heart. I saw no one, but, strange as it was, I missed no one” (Strayed 70). This takes a turn of events. “Every part of my body hurts, except my heart,” gives new meaning and how Strayed manages to gain emotional stability in the wake of her mothers’ death, and illness. This shows great strength in regards that she rises above the obstacles thrown in her path--the feeling of what it means to be alive. This work invites and informs the reader of the many ways one can cope with loss; moreover, Strayed demonstrates what what may work for everyone--the method of sublimation.
Though most have a desire to leave earth and enter eternal life peacefully, without any sorrow, the departure of a loved one can be despondent. Previously in 2011, my grandfather passed away due to heart failure. It was an arduous battle, not only for my grandfather, but also for the close knit family surrounding him. His battle with heart failure enabled me to create unforgettable memories with him, even in his final days. Laughing together, playing together and learning significant values about life together made me grow to become a more mature and wise person. Therefore, my personal experience is entwined with empathy because the death of my grandfather has made me realize how dismal it is to lose someone important. It also interplays with self-interest because I have grown as an individual to deal with the ache that is attached to losing a family member. It has helped me to realize how beautiful the gift of life is. Stephen Dunn, the poet behind Empathy and my story are connected because they both involve the feeling of empathy for others and the self-interest of an individual. They help us to grow and learn about ourselves and the emotions of
“The way [one] expresses both the agony of life and the possibility of conquering it through is the sheer toughness of the spirit. They fall short of
For a parent it must be a horrible experience to see their children die, and for Ayah it was worst because “it wasn’t like Jimmie died. He just never came back”. She might still being waiting for her sun to return. Ayah hoped that her son would take charge of the family and continue the traditions, “She mourned Jimmie because he would have worked for his father then;” But he was dead now, he could no longer learn and teach the ways of his culture. Somethi...
“I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love.” (Buscaglia, 2013)
Jerry Sittser’s book not only brings readers into loss with all its real emotions and pain but it also highlights truths that can be applied to anyone’s life. Sittser’s faith is evident throughout the book and his struggle of finding his faith within his loss and sorrow is encouraging to many. In the end, through his loss, he finds God again and through the writing of his book is now able to offer many insights on the Christian perspectives of sorrow, loss, forgiveness and how mental illness affects families. Sittser inspires readers because they have witnessed that they can too grow and continue living life despite their loss and without forgetting their loss.
As the first poem in the book it sums up the primary focus of the works in its exploration of loss, grieving, and recovery. The questions posed about the nature of God become recurring themes in the following sections, especially One and Four. The symbolism includes the image of earthly possessions sprawled out like gangly dolls, a reference possibly meant to bring about a sense of nostalgia which this poem does quite well. The final lines cement the message that this is about loss and life, the idea that once something is lost, it can no longer belong to anyone anymore brings a sense...
During the early seventeenth century, poets were able to mourn the loss of a child publicly by writing elegies, or poems to lament the deceased. Katherine Philips and Ben Jonson were two poets who wrote the popular poems “On the Death of My Dearest Child, Hector Philips”, “On My First Son”, and “On My First Daughter” respectively. Although Philips and Jonson’s elegies contain obvious similarities, the differences between “On the Death of My Dearest Child” and “On My First Son” specifically are pronounced. The emotions displayed in the elegies are very distinct when considering the sex of the poet. The grief shown by a mother and father is a major theme when comparing the approach of mourning in the two elegies.
During some point any many lives, someone had lost a loved one and weren’t sure how to properly mourn for them. Their death led to a path of agony and despair for the living that can’t handle to feel as their emotions died as well. It’s always hard to accept that the one you love is gone, but reality takes a stab at you telling you to wake up. In Emily Dickinson’s “After Great Pain” piece, she examines the series of steps every person has gone through now or in the future.
...is simple truth we learn that man must acknowledge when his work is complete and then chose to focus on that which is better and cannot be taken away from us – time spent in communion with the Lord, memories shared with loved ones, and rest. But, most importantly, from this passage we learn that man must not put his faith in anyone or anything else but the Lord, for he is sufficient to provide for our needs and desires. He knows each person before their birth, he gives each of them a purpose in life, salvation from their sins, a place to dwell God’s presence after death, and selfless love. Man’s only true need is salvation from the sins that have condemned him. The only way to receive that salvation is through faith in God. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross has allowed man to do that, anything more is futile for he alone is sufficient and his work is complete.
To begin, the poem, “Eve’s Apology,” uses many different poetic devices such as alliteration, assonance, rhyme scheme, and simile. The author uses a great number of alliteration, which is the repetition of constant sounds generally at the beginnings of words. Alliteration can be seen in the words “what” and “weakness” in line 3. Some more examples of alliteration throughout the poem are “subtle serpent’s” (23), “he had him” (24), and “with words which” (30). Assonance, the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end with different consonant sounds, is another poetic device that the author uses greatly. Some examples of assonance are found in lines 10 “ The ‘p...