Views on Death in Poetry

Views on Death in Poetry

Francis Beaumont, James Shirley, John Donne and Dylan Thomas are poets

who write about death, but in two very different ways. Francis

Beaumont and James Shirley both write in a similar way, and John Donne

and Dylan both write in a similar way. To Francis Beaumont and James

Shirley death is a finality whereas for John Donne and Dylan Thomas

death is the start of a new life, a new beginning.

Francis Beaumont was born in 1584 and lived until the age of 32, he

died in 1616. 'On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey' is a poem written by

Francis Beaumont.

'Think how many royal bones

Sleep within this heap of stones:'

The above quote shows that even the royal, who had everything die, and

when we die everything that we may have had will just disappear under

the heap of stones where it will be buried and never be seen again.

Bones are structure to hold us up so that we may move. It gives us

strength to do thinks like move but when we die the strength is taken

away and we no longer fell anything, and therefore do not have the

strength to move. This is shown in the below quote.

'Who now want strength to stir their hand'

'That the earth did e'er suck in'

This line from the poem suggests that when we die we are sucked in to

the ground, this is when we are buried, and this happens when we are

dead. When we get sucked in it is the end of life and this shows that

Francis Beaumont believed that death is a finality.

'Here's a world of pomp and state

Buried in dust, once dead by fate.'

The above two lines are the last lines of the poem. Francis Beaumont

may be trying to say that no matter how we leave this world we all

will one day and when we do, in the end, it will be in the same way,

it will be chosen by fate, when it wants us dead we will be gone