The loss of a loved one is an emotional and personal experience, and everyone grieves in their own way. Before the healing process can begin, the deceased must be laid to rest and this is usually accomplished with a funeral service. Many people choose a piece to be read at these ceremonies, such as W.H. Auden’s “Funeral Blues” and Mary Elizabeth Frye’s “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep.” It is quite thought-provoking to compare the poems, since the subject matter is the same, however each of these works views death from a different perspective, one negative and the other positive. Auden’s “Funeral Blues” is perceived through the eyes of the mourner. The tone is sad and the state of mind of the speaker is full of melancholy. Although the main theme of the poem is about death and the shattering impact it leaves on the survivors, there are secondary themes of love and the chaos that ensues in the life of the bereaved. In the first two stanzas, the speaker deals with the rituals of the funeral and wants the world to stand still because the world has stopped for him. The speaker wishes that all sounds be silenced and has a desire for time to stop. Perhaps the speaker demands that every aspect of the funeral be exact as a way to bring control back to his chaotic life since the death of their loved one. The third stanza uses hyperboles to describe the depths of love between the two people and the line “He was my North, my South, my East and West” leads the reader to believe that the person who died set a course and now the speaker does not know what direction to take. The deceased was the speaker’s whole world. The disappointment the speaker is experiencing is conveyed when he says, “I thought that love would last fo... ... middle of paper ... ...ing a cherished loved one, that life is no longer worth anything. To the contrary, “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” is inspiring and gives hope to the reader that death is not final. Many people think that although the physical body dies, that the spirit or soul of the dearly departed lives on and obviously Frye believes this, as well. Similar to Frye, I believe that when the physical body dies, the spirit lives on. Her poem brings a sense of comfort and hope, as opposed to Auden’s poem that leaves the reader with a sense of loss and despair. Works Cited Aires, DC. “Analysis of Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep.” Humanities360. (2008), Web. 13 October 2013 “Funeral Blues.” Poetry for Students. Ed. Michael L. LaBlanc. Vol. 10. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. 138-150. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 October 2013.
All eight stanzas Lee wrote combine to inform readers his experience of grief and how it went from beginning to end. In the beginning, Lee opens readers with his vision of life, which is everyone are circuit boards, who absorb the electricity of life. In other words, Lee is explaining how every person’s life goes, but it always comes to an end at some point. From Lee’s life, he has lost a friend as stated before named Stephen. “Pass On” then looks back at the memories of Stephen such as, how he enjoyed dribbling the basketball or singing his favorite songs. However, Lee begins to realize he should not mourn over his loss nor grieve as he looks back at memories, but instead find Stephen. Near the end of “Pass On” and Lee’s journey concluding, he believes that Stephen and everyone else who is not physically alive are in the breeze of the wind. More specifically, whenever someone feels a strong breeze of wind, a loved one of theirs is most likely right beside them. Furthermore, Stephen and everyone else dead are not only in the wind, but indirectly in people you see every day. With Lee, after nine years of searching for Stephen he has found him in Wilt Chamberlain, who plays basketball, his voice in a musical young boy who sings, and his smile in a young girl’s shinning teeth. With Lee’s beliefs and his own
Scene I “Funerals are quite, but deaths- not always. Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes they even cry out to you, “Don’t let me go!” Even the old, sometimes say, “Don’t let me go.” As if you were able to stop them! But funerals are quiet, with pretty flowers (Williams 27).”
In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.
Through the careful use of diction presented through a first-person perspective, Kenyon is able to use The Blue Bowl as a medium for social commentary regarding what she sees as a primitive mourning process that does not help those who undertake it. Through a careful analysis of the poem, the reader is able to understand Kenyon’s critique of the mourning rituals that humans use to alleviate the grief caused by the death of a loved one and interpret the shortcomings that Kenyon finds. Kenyon’s use of perspective combined with specifically chosen diction enables her to present a social commentary regarding what she believes to be the inherent shortcomings in the emotional effects of the burial itself and the sense of closure it is supposed to bring yet fails to achieve during a typical period of mourning.
In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” she uses the structure of her poem and rhetoric as concrete representation of her abstract beliefs about death to comfort and encourage readers into accepting Death when He comes. The underlying theme that can be extracted from this poem is that death is just a new beginning. Dickinson deftly reassures her readers of this with innovative organization and management, life-like rhyme and rhythm, subtle but meaningful use of symbolism, and ironic metaphors.
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.
This Text links to the texts above as like them the author experienced some form of a loss and learnt something from it. Also just like the first text, “Pass On,” by Michael Lee the poet believes that the dead are truly never gone. Neil Hilborn talks about how Punk Rock John saved him and how later he was murdered. This is shown when Neil says, “That first mosh pit was not a quiet conversation about suicide, it was Punk Rock John telling me, “Hey asshole! Don’t kill yourself!”” and later when the poet says, “But then some out-of-town skin dropped a guillotine knife blade into John’s skull. This shows both that he was the poets hero but was also tragically lost. The ending line shows the poets purpose of the text. It says, “As long as I can remember, I will hear him– he says, “kid, you’ll be fine.” This shows that even though this poem is all about loss, it can be overcome and loved ones are truly never gone as long as they are not gone from your memories. The point of this poem was to show that loss is devastating inevitable but can be overcome and that the lost loved ones will always be in your heart. The purpose is also obvious through the overall sad tone of the beginning of the text but the uplifting tone at the end. “Of Mice and Men”, the text below relates to this text as it also captures the feeling of loss although in a different way, through the loss of ultimate
The interpretations of what comes after death may vary greatly across literature, but one component remains constant: there will always be movement. In her collection Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey discusses the significance, permanence and meaning of death often. The topic is intimate and personal in her life, and inescapable in the general human experience. Part I of Native Guard hosts many of the most personal poems in the collection, and those very closely related to the death of Trethewey’s mother, and the exit of her mother’s presence from her life. 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
Death is painfully unpleasant for anyone who is approached with it. It can be difficult to comprehend and scary to live through, but just because death isn’t very well liked does not mean it doesn’t happen. In fact it happens every day through every hour; no rich, poor, healthy, or sick can escape it. The contemporary writer Amy Hempel gracefully writes about death between a friendship in her piece titled “In The Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried,” showing a relatable situation everyone will undergo at some point in their life. Hempel’s relatability to the subject of death and reactions, unique style of characterization, and rhythmic balance display the great qualities that make her work so rare; making it belong to the 21st century literary
Auden, the poet who wrote “Funeral Blues,” uses hyperbolic and metaphorical language to convey the thoughts of the speaker. The tone throughout the poem is very consistent, as evidenced by the similar themes of the first and last stanzas. The speaker essentially proposes that, due to the death of this man she so dearly loved, all functions of the universe should stop immediately. The third stanza stands out from the other three, though, because it explains what her feelings were toward this man, and why her sorrow was so deep. She also expresses regret in having believed their love would last forever, which may actually reference the demise of the attraction between them, not the death of a man. Nonetheless, there is more than just language that gets the speaker’s point
... Their flowers, the tenderness of patient minds, explains the colourful flowers that would be offered at a ceremony to a relative or friend. This funeral highlights the distance between funerals on the battlefield and their relatives back at home; they wouldn’t see them; they would just know that they are dead. Throughout the poem the point that is emphasised is that the soldiers that died on the battlefield did not receive happy endings and even in death, battle was like a shadow; it never went away from them; it was always around them.
If you’ve ever experienced a death of a family member or a friend, it is obvious how harshly that can make a person’s life take a turn for the worse. Emily Bronte lost her mother, two sisters, and aunt during her life and instead of turning her loss into negativity; she used her pain to create something beautiful. While women were not taken seriously during her time, and poems regarding nature were not widely regarded in the Victorian Age; she wrote from the heart when she created her poem “Death”. Therefore, the deaths of Emily Bronte’s family influenced her obsession with death in her poetry and admiration of nature since she lived a more secluded lifestyle after losing her family.
Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden is a short poem that illustrates the emotions that he is dealing with after the love of his life passes away. The tone of this piece evokes feelings that will differ depending on the reader; therefore, the meaning of this poem is not in any way one-dimensional, resulting in inevitable ambiguity . In order to evoke emotion from his audience, Auden uses a series of different poetic devices to express the sadness and despair of losing a loved one. This poem isn’t necessarily about finding meaning or coming to some overwhelming realization, but rather about feeling emotions and understanding the pain that the speaker is experiencing. Through the use of poetic devices such as an elegy, hyperboles, imagery, metaphors, and alliterations as well as end-rhyme, Auden has created a powerful poem that accurately depicts the emotions a person will often feel when the love of their live has passed away.
Losing a loved one is one of the hardest experiences every person must go through. The experience does not end with the loss though, but begins with it. The loss of a dear person leads those left behind into a downward spiral of emotions and memories. A poem entitled “Lucy Gray” by William Wordsworth focuses on that loss and the emotions that follow it. By reading the poem one can objectively experience both the grief that Lucy Gray’s death brings on but also her parents’ acceptance of her death.
Both poets, in these works and many others, display a fascination with the death of themselves as well as the death of peers, and loved ones. Both Frost and Dickinson experienced a great deal of death throughout each of their lives. Frost’s greatest loss was the death of his son, which is greatly depicted in his poem “Home Burial.” Dickinson suffered the loss of many friends and family. She spent a lot of her time in her room looking out upon the headstones of these people.