Existence was a pill bitter to be swallowed, forced over the tongue, between the teeth, left to slide with its insistence down the channel of the throat - to be united with all that lay within, merest moralities couple with the pressing notes of mortality coming and then bleeding past. Lives were but candle flame, for the winds to tempt with their burning, to allow the smallest edges to catch then a spark, lighting upon the wick of the soul sold each little fractured piece of a remaining heart. The pale horse breathed upon this feeble light, as though in a testament to some unknown spite, as eyes looked down from their perch on high, reminding that even the strong would fall under its spell and die. A sweet tune, then, to harshened ears, a siren song sung so sweetly for the awaiting world - as backs then bent with twisted spines and ever shouldered these changing times. Come to me, such seemed to say - let me show you where you ought to lay. By a roadside or in a hole, bit by bit and soul to soul. A sweet tune, then, to harshened ears, a siren’s song so sweetly for the world - as backs then bent and ever endured. Come to me, such seemed to say, let me show you where you will lay. By a roadside or in a hole, bit by bit and soul to soul. The static united in the end, stories dying, not to mend. Yet in this it was not the death that could be feared, but the living instruments to this will. Hunted, were these careful lives, haunted by the rising tides. Ever to breath if only to gasp, wondering if the hunters would reach the end at last. Here there be demons, here there be men, here there be mortals and all of their sins. Those small edges of serenity seemed fragile enough in which to crack, as though every little moment cheris... ... middle of paper ... ...r chin tilted, to meet him in his critical gaze, wanting to remember him as she saw him now, not the one he might become. Eyes filled with universes and confessions behind the teeth. What could be given when all that had been said was in wanting to keep? Could the moment not just be enjoyed? Why were the happiness so quickly spent? Confusion breaking and splitting and forming and making. “I-If you don’t ... h-he’ll ... find other ways ...” You will always be alone. He had promised with hatred burning hot in his eyes. I love you. He had crooned a hundred thousand times. In that moment, Ida wondered what it would be like to die. If only to spare them both the pain of living in these lives. Mouse was sorry. Yet again. For every moment lost and each moment shared. Made of tears and broken, horrid things. And a smile thin as glass.
While the poem's situation is simple, its theme is not. Stafford appears to be intimating that life is precious and fragile; however, nothing so clearly discloses these attributes of life as confrontation with death. Furthermore, the very confrontations that engender appreciation of life's delicacies force action-all to frequently callous action.
... 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.
As the time passed, it was clear to both of them that their relationship will not turn into a sexual one, but into something much more profound. He did not want it to be compromised by carnality. The urgent appetite they felt for each other could not be satisfied by mere adhesion to lust. They had to deal with their souls, hearts and minds, as well as their bodies.
"The boundaries which divide Life and Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where one ends, and where the other begins?" Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial (Bartlett, 642). To venture into the world of Edgar Allan Poe is to embark on a journey to a land filled with perversities of the mind, soul, and body. The joyless existence carved out by his writings is one of lost love, mental anguish, and the premature withering of his subjects. Poe wrote in a style that characterized the sufferings he endured throughout in his pitiful life. From the death of his parents while he was still a child, to the repeated frailty of his love life, to the neuroses of his later years, his life was a ceaseless continuum of one mind-warping tragedy after another.
“It was a large, beautiful room, rich and picturesque in the soft, dim light which the maid had turned low. She went and stood at an open window and looked out upon the deep tangle of the garden below. All the mystery and witchery of the night seemed to have gathered there amid the perfumes and the dusky and tortuous outlines of flowers and foliage. She was seeking herself and finding herself in just such sweet half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars. They jeered and sounded mourning notes without promise, devoid even of hope. She turned back into the room and began to walk to and fro, down its whole length, without stopping, without resting. She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the glittering circlet.
The theme of Time to Come presents the mystery of life after death and calls attention to how vulnerable it’s victims are. Whitman begins his poem with the strong metaphor “ O, Death! a black and pierceless pall” (1). This bold statement allows the reader quickly realize that the work will somehow be connected to death, but in an insightful manner. The alliteration of “pierceless pall” emphasizes death’s ruthless approach. Whitman then describes death as a “mystery of fate” that " No eye may see, no mind may grasp” (3-4). This points out that death lingers in the future, essentially waiting to seize lives and nobody can know when th...
...e will be lost as sudden lightning or as wind. And yet the ghost of her remains reflected with the metal gone, a shadow as of shifting leaves at moonrise or at early dawn. A kind of rapture never quite possessed again, however long the heart lays siege upon a ghost recaptured in a web of song – Tennessee Williams” (Hoare).
Part I is particularly anecdotal, with many of the poems relating to the death of Trethewey’s mother. The first part begins with an epitaph from the traditional Wayfaring Stranger, which introduces the movement of the soul after death, and the journey towards the ‘home’ beyond. In “Graveyard Blues”, Trethewey examines the definition of “home” as a place of lament, in contrast to the comforting meaning in the epitaph beginning Part I, and the significance of the soul’s movement after death. The ‘home’ described in the epitaph is a place of comfort and familiarity, where the speaker returns to their mother. In contrast, Trethewey describes the ‘home’ she returns to after her mother’s death as a hollow place, the journey back to which is incredibly
In the first instance, death is portrayed as a “bear” (2) that reaches out seasonally. This is then followed by a man whom “ comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse / / to buy me…” This ever-changing persona that encapsulates death brings forth a curiosity about death and its presence in the living world. In the second stanza, “measles-pox” (6) is an illness used to portray death’s existence in a distinctive embodiment. This uncertainty creates the illusion of warmth and welcomenesss and is further demonstrated through the reproduction of death as an eminent figure. Further inspection allows the reader to understand death as a swift encounter. The quick imagery brought forth by words such as “snaps” and “shut” provoke a sense of startle in which the audience may dispel any idea of expectedness in death’s coming. This essential idea of apparent arrival transitions to a slower, foreseeable fate where one can imagine the enduring pain experienced “an iceberg between shoulder blades” (line 8). This shift characterizes the constant adaptation in appearance that death acquires. Moreover, the idea of warmth radiating from death’s presence reemerges with the introduction to a “cottage of darkness” (line 10), which to some may bring about a feeling of pleasantry and comfort. It is important to note that line 10 was the sole occurrence of a rhetorical question that the speaker
..., the content and form has self-deconstructed, resulting in a meaningless reduction/manifestation of repetition. The primary focus of the poem on the death and memory of a man has been sacrificed, leaving only the skeletal membrane of any sort of focus in the poem. The “Dirge” which initially was meant to reflect on the life of the individual has been completely abstracted. The “Dirge” the reader is left with at the end of the poem is one meant for anyone and no one. Just as the internal contradictions in Kenneth Fearing’s poem have eliminated the substantial significance of each isolated concern, the reader is left without not only a resolution, but any particular tangible meaning at all. The form and content of this poem have quite effectively established a powerful modernist statement, ironically contingent on the absence and not the presence of meaning in life.
...tching its’ prey. This alludes to the Forests shaking on their own, and it is the wind that restrains them. Similarly, the wild nature of “He” is like an animal with the potential to destroy the soul or the Forests, yet is a fortification to the soul’s “Brittle Nature.” The “still” universe in the final lines implies that the act of divine violence or revelation creates a surrounding silence, perhaps of despair, horror, or peace. Rather than a shocked awe, Dickinson uses this couplet to reveal the “full Music” being dropped on the audience. The entirety of the musical force it directed at “you,” in a cosmic suspension fraught with meaning and intent, consequently following the “scalp[ing]” with silence. Additionally, the universe, whether referring to the actual atmosphere or the realm “you” and their soul resides within is stilled, is reverence or purification.
The poem, “After Great Pain”, by Emily Dickinson, is one that conveys an inner struggle of emotion and the process that a person goes through after experiencing suffering or pain. Through this poem, Dickinson utilizes physical reactions to allude to the emotional pain that can make people feel numb and empty. Included in this poem is an array of literary devices, such as oxymorons, similes, and personification. These devices help show how death and grief can be confronted, whether it be by giving into the pain or by regaining emotional strength, letting go, and moving on with life. As we work on the project, we discuss multiple aspects of the poem and how the structure and diction alludes the meaning of the poem.
The two poems, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, by Dylan Thomas and, “Because I Could Not Wait for Death”, by Emily Dickinson, we find two distinct treatments on the same theme, death. Although they both represent death, they also represent it as something other than death. Death brings about a variety of different feelings, because no two people feel the same way or believe the same thing. The fact that our faith is unknown makes the notion of death a common topic, as writers can make sense of their own feelings and emotions and in the process hope to make readers make sense of theirs too. Both Dickinson and Thomas are two well known and revered poets for their eloquent capture of these emotions. The poems both explore death and the
Myra, who is dying of illness, escapes the confinement of her stuffy, dark apartment. She refuses to succumb to death in an insubordinate manner. By leaving the apartment and embracing open space, Myra rejects the societal pressure to be a kept woman. Myra did not want to die “like this, alone with [her] mortal enemy” (Cather, 85). Myra wanted to recapture the independence she sacrificed when eloping with Oswald. In leaving the apartment, Myra simultaneously conveys her disapproval for the meager lifestyle that her husband provides for her and the impetus that a woman needs a man to provide for her at all. Myra chose to die alone in an open space – away from the confinement of the hotel walls that served as reminders of her poverty and the marriage that stripped her of wealth and status. She wished to be “cremated and her ashes buried ‘in some lonely unfrequented place in the mountains, or in the sea” (Cather, 83). She wished to be alone once she died, she wanted freedom from quarantining walls and the institution of marriage that had deprived her of affluence and happiness. Myra died “wrapped in her blankets, leaning against the cedar trunk, facing the sea…the ebony crucifix in her hands” (Cather, 82). She died on her own terms, unconstrained by a male, and unbounded by space that symbolized her socioeconomic standing. The setting she died in was the complete opposite of the space she had lived in with Oswald: It was free space amid open air. She reverted back to the religious views of her youth, symbolizing her desire to recant her ‘sin’ of leaving her uncle for Oswald, and thus abandoning her wealth. “In religion , desire was fulfillment, it was the seeking itself that rewarded”( Cather, 77), it was not the “object of the quest that brought satisfaction” (Cather, 77). Therefore, Myra ends back where she began; she dies holding onto
In the poem, “It was not Death, for I stood up,” Dickinson uses words to describe the sense of hopelessness she feels as she tries to pinpoint the source of her anguish. In the first two stanzas, she uses specific sensory details to convey her chaotic feelings to tell the reader what her condition cannot be. A repetition of “it was not” (1) is then followed by a reason of why she eliminated the possibility, using the senses of sound or touch. She merges together the conditions she had eradicated and through her chaotic state, her thoughts turn toward funerals. This causes her to think about her death and her current state of mind. She feels her “life were shaven” (13), so that the only emotions left were despair and terror with the feeling of hope lost. She also “could not breathe without a key” (15); terror does not directly affect a person’s breathing, but it sometimes causes a person to feel as if he were suffocating, unable to breathe. Her “key” that she needs is to understand what she is feeling, but she cannot figure it out (15). The last stanza in the poem expresses an overwhelming feeling of bleakness, there is no opportunity for rescue, “like Chaos— Stopless— … / Without a Chance… / Or even a Report of Land—” (21-23). In the last line, there is a paradox, that since there was no possibility of hop...