“Pass On” written by Michael Lee is a free verse poem informing readers on grief, which is one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome not only when losing a loved one, but also in life itself. “Pass On” successfully developed this topic through the setting of an unknown character who explains his or her experience of grief. Despite Lee never introducing this character, readers are given enough information to know how they are overcoming this difficult obstacle. In fact, this unknown character is most likely the writer himself, indirectly explaining his moments of grief. One important piece of information Lee provides is the fact that he has experienced loss twice, one with his grandfather and the other a friend who was murdered by the …show more content…
name Stephen. With the use of poetic devices, Lee successfully developed the theme of the people you love are always with you. Michael Lee’s poem, “Pass On” was written to be considered, a lesson for the world of what they should know when a person they knew and loved are no longer with them.
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 …show more content…
experience of grief spread throughout these eight stanzas, he has effectively taught any reader how they could believe positively about death. Overall, “Pass On” placed a thoughtful amount of consideration into the poem’s structure. Although Lee excluded use of rhymes or sounds, which is clearly seen as one stanza has each line end with wind, me, someone, did, second, and somewhere, the structure in turn, reveals a huge part of the poem. Lee’s poem is split into eight stanzas, with each containing an irregular amount of lines. Stanza one is a septet; for example, while Lee’s fifth stanza only contains four lines, which is considered a quatrain. Additionally, there is no repeating pattern of the amount of words and syllables included as line eighteen contains ten words along with twelve syllables. Meanwhile, two lines after, twenty only contains seven words and eight syllables. Despite Lee’s lack of rhyme, sounds, or pattern of words, his inclusion of eight stanzas was done intentionally as Lee introduces his readers with, “When searching for the lost remember 8 things,” (Line 1, Lee). Considering Lee’s purpose was to teach eight things or thoughts, these eight stanzas each have a thought Lee had desire to discuss, which is exactly what he did in the rest of the poem. Lee’s ingenious structure of his stanzas reveals the poem’s meaning and intention of grief while also providing an example of putting stanza structure to outstanding use. “Pass On” has an interesting use of diction to lead towards a passionate tone. Lee decided to not use any unrecognizable words with a probable reason to allow every reader to fully understand the lesson he placed into the poem. Instead of readers becoming blinded by use of complicated words and lose focus on Lee’s meaning, his simple vocabulary permits readers to focus on the true meaning. Despite Lee avoided unrecognizable words, he used repetition as another method to develop diction. One repeated word is forms of wind as used when Lee wrote, “The day my grandfather passed away there was the strongest wind,” or, “I feel out the strongest breeze and take off running,” (Lines 16 and 32, Lee). In the poem’s case, Lee is simply emphasizing how the wind contains all the people who have existed in this world. Considering the wind is found everywhere no matter where you are, Lee and everyone else can in a way have a contempt emotion that their loved ones are right there by their side. Death in Lee’s eyes is no excuse for believing those loved ones have abandoned you. Instead, they are in the wind to continue their aspiration to support, care, and love you. In addition to wind, Lee repeatedly used synonyms of find as his journey was to essentially search for Stephen after his death and know he his beside him. Lee’s journey, as he explains has, “…been looking for him for 9 years,” which means it has taken Lee time to move past his grief and find a way out of it (Line 28, Lee). Furthermore, their death does not mean it is impossible to see them again. After his nine years; however, he mentions, “…I found Stephen,” (Line 33, Lee). These two use of words find and found have direct impact on each other as Lee’s use of word found means he has successfully achieved the end of his journey. Although the word find and its use in this poem means seeing your lost one again could be long and difficult the end-result is that if you do not give up and continue searching you will someday have found them and gain a sense of contempt instead of depression they are not here anymore. In fact, Lee’s achievement of his discovery of Stephen again has allowed him to feel a positive emotion, something normally impossible in a stage of depression. When Lee observed, the man playing basketball in Boston and suddenly felt it was Stephen inside he begun to creatively visualize for readers, “…a cross-over, a wrap-around rewinding, turn-tables cracking open, camera-men turn flash bulbs to fireworks,” (Lines 38 to 40, Lee). These unusually formed words with the use of dashes are depicting the man playing basketball and the fact Lee suddenly states these words clarifies that he is sensing Stephen inside this man he never met before. Even more, readers can sense a tone of excitement inside Lee as he wrote this moment, hence one of the benefits of his rigorous search, which is all the sadness in grief can suddenly disappear. Due to Lee’s belief, readers will notice a passionate tone throughout the entire poem without change. For example, as Lee mentions, “We do not die. We pass on…,” and, “…When someone dies I do not weep over polaroid or belongings, I begin to look…,” his use of not represents his passionate belief that what is usually thought of by civilization when it comes to death is completely incorrect and only further develops grief in the mind (Lines 30 and 60, Lee). His thoughts on searching lost ones through wind and other people is the true way to overcome grief. For that reason, by following Lee’s inspiration, happiness and the overcoming of grief as seen when Lee saw Stephen in multiple people are major benefits he attempts to convince readers with. When it comes to death itself, the event can be tragic for everyone that knew them and leave a permanent scar in their memory; with imagery, Lee attempted to remind readers of that scar in their memory with his own experience. Upon Stephen’s murder, anyone including Lee himself would instantly feel a sudden heart-broken emotion such as depression. Lee created his own heart-broken emotion with, “The day Stephen was murdered everything that made us love him rushed from his knife wounds…,” (Lines 22 to 23, Lee). Lee’s emotion in this case is clearly in sorrow as everything he knew about Stephen and what made him love this person is suddenly disappearing with the only piece remaining is a body without a soul. Readers who have also experienced someone approaching death will easily relate to Lee’s own experience and suddenly bring back that permanent memory in their minds. By Lee using imagery to bring forth a similar memory in most readers, it provides the ability for both the reader and writer to relate. In effect, Lee has a created a way to grab reader’s interest and only further pull them inside his world, along with gaining curiosity on how Lee envisions death. As well as using imagery to connect the reader and writer, Lee also taught a smaller lesson in the meaning he was already conveying as he reveals, “The day my grandfather passed away there was the strongest wind... feel his gentle hands blowing away… find someone who needed them more,” (Lines 16 to 17, Lee). Besides Lee appearing to at first visualize his grandfather leaving him, which is the exact opposite readers are intended to learn, it also places into view a reminder for us to support one another. From other pieces of literature and even life-experiences, having support from another person can entirely change how someone might feel. With having someone at your side especially after a traumatizing event, it can facilitate the healing process. Not only should support be given to those we are close to, but also in consideration of what Lee’s grandfather did, for people you might not even know or little about. Comparatively, if Lee believes people who are dead are supporting others in times of need despite not even knowing them, there is no excuse for why the people who are alive are not offering support. Coupled with the diction, tone, and imagery Lee has encompassed into his poem to empower the meaning, he has also included one symbol, which is the wind. Wind, which has been continually mentioned by Lee has received the most emphasis in the entire poem. Lee has used wind every time in relation to the people who have died in the world as he states, “…1.8 people on earth die every second. There is always a guest of wind somewhere,” or, “Every ounce of him has been wrapping around this world in a windstorm,” (Lines 20 to 21 and 27, Lee). The simple reasoning behind this is because as stated before, the wind is a representation of these people who have died. Despite not existing in human-form, Lee envisions these people are incorporated in the wind and allows them to be everywhere in the world. Accordingly, the people who are alive cannot feel abandoned or alone after the death of someone they knew since if they can feel the wind, their loved one is most likely there right beside them. With this symbol, Lee has provided a creative and influential method for readers to believe those who are dead are technically still around. If Lee were to simply to explain his belief without containing a creative symbol, the poem would lose ability to convince the reader and overall lack interest from a reader’s perspective. Not only has Lee used the following methods of poetry in “Pass On,” but he has also taken advantage of both similes and metaphors to further develop the reader’s understanding.
When Lee first introduced his readers, he started off with a beautiful metaphor to summarize how every human’s life goes as he wrote, “We are circuit boards swallowing the electricity of life upon birth,” (Lines 2 to 3, Lee). To clarify, Lee is explaining the beauty of life when we are alive and how we essentially use this electricity to create unforgettable memories along with emphasizing the importance of existing. However, not long into the poem, a sudden change in the emotion occurs as Lee depicted Stephen’s death with, “…as though his chest were an auditorium his life an audience leaving single file,” (Lines 24 to 25, Lee). In consideration with how the main lesson Lee was applying on his poem, it is easily visible that this sudden change in mood was done purposefully. With this dark simile, readers will be captured and feel that sudden shock in mixed emotion when someone’s death occurs. In effect, not only will readers who have seen death understand, but Lee also taught readers who have not seen a similar event what will happen, allowing any reader to understand the topic even without any past experiences. Quickly after though, Lee re-introduces a cheerful environment with similes to describe the people he has found as he visualized, “…his lungs flapping like sails,” and, “…teeth shinning like
the opera house in your neck…” (Lines 50 and 52, Lee). Similarly, to what Lee has done with diction, he uses these positive similes to introduce the idea that by viewing your loved ones in the people you see every day, the same characteristics found in those people will be present in others you have never even met before. For this reason, Lee convinces readers his belief removes the mourn and loneliness that normally approaches upon death. Furthermore, his use of similes and metaphors were used as a method of persuasion as he exemplifies the effects death rains on people only to introduce more similes, which show how to leave grief in past or avoid it all together. Upon, the end of “Pass On” by Michael Lee, readers will truly feel inspired and convinced by Lee on how to take on the difficulty of grief in his eight stanzas. One of Lee’s major answers is the symbol of wind, which encompasses all the people who have passed. Throughout Lee’s poem, he continually repeated wind in various forms such as breeze or windstorm to clarify one of the most important ideas to remember from his poem. Anytime the wind is felt from anywhere you are, all your loved ones who have passed are beside you, not only supporting your existence in life, but others who are in times of need. Nonetheless, Lee pulled readers towards his inspirational beliefs as he also integrated imagery, figurative language, and more diction. In addition to the belief of what wind encompasses, the characteristics of your loved ones may also be in the people you see every day, technically imagining your lost one. Lee’s belief is exactly what occurred to himself when he met a man in Boston playing basketball. Close resemblance of how this man played basketball to Stephen excited Lee and led to his unusually formed words such as cross-over or wrap-around. Lee’s excitement from his diction only emphasizes the benefit of his belief. Furthermore, his detailed visualizations allow the readers and himself to connect to each other as they both might have experienced a similar tragic event when it came to death, providing the ability for Lee to attract readers in another method. Upon having the reader’s attention though imagery, he can provide his own support and beliefs for grief, which is what he did with figurative language. With figurative language, readers are reminded of the beauty and preciousness of life as Lee described the tragedy of Stephen’s death with simile. However, hope is not all lost as when Lee encountered other people who had characteristics of Stephen. Astonishment of this belief was expressed through his similes and how beautiful it was to technically see Stephen all over again. Through “Pass On” and its use of poetic devices, Lee has taught and persuaded readers the theme of the people you love are always with you.
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 main theme of the poem is reflected in the title. Bryant presents to the reader a “view of death” they have likely not considered before. The persona’s “view of death” changes when influenced by nature and with his new understanding comes a new acceptance and understanding of life. This higher understanding is what Bryant through the persona shares with the reader in hopes of helping the reader to learn from his experiences. The poem teaches the reader that it is useless to view death with worry or fear because no worrying did anything to prevent death from the masses that have already returned to nature, and no fear will delay the death of the many to come that will experience the same fate. There is no living thing that is exempt from this fact of life and grieving this inevitable fate is a waste of time-just appreciate the chance you have.
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.
In order to become an undercover agent, one must have certain qualities to perform the job correctly. According to Gregory D. Lee’s article, “Undercover Operations,” depending on the undercover case, a undercover agent must have certain knowledgeable qualifications. For example, “If a UC operation concerns drugs, the officer must have knowledge about drugs in general, and specifically how they are bought, sold, diluted, transported, smuggled, concealed, and used. They must also speak the trafficker's "language" and know street terminology for different drugs” (Gregory D. Lee). Lee suggested you have to “know thy enemy” in order to have a successful undercover assignment. You must also be able to play the role of the person or people you
The theme of the poem is grieving the death of the man in a very unique way. The
Love is one of the emotions that many cannot explain easily. Death is something almost everyone fears. Love and death creates a theme that gives the reader the ability to relate with the speaker of the poem. How does a person, or better yet, a lover react when faced with the death of their beloved? W.H. Auden’s “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone” which was written in 1936 tells us the story of someone who has loved deeply and had that love taken from them. When one thinks of love, the visuals that come to mind are those that are joyful and pleasant. And when death comes, it creates a void within, forcing out anything that was remotely joyful and pleasant and fills that void with sadness, bitterness and anger. The author answers
The use of death as a theme is common practice in poetry, but the ways in which it is employed can be very diverse in meaning. An effective poem can send a message about death that is easily absorbed and refrains from forcing that message upon the reader. That kind of poem is written with the intent of conveying its meaning to a reader without that person realizing it, and only after having taken time to process the poem will understanding follow. Robert Frost was able to write in this way. In the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, Robert Frost portrays death as a material entity. Death takes on the physical form of the woods, and the man who has stopped in front of them is experiencing his own spiritual connection with it. Looking at death in this way is what gives the poem the power to get its point across, which is that all people must confront death in their own way.
Loss is a very hard thing to go through. It’s also a common topic in stories, such as in Bridge to Terabithia and Walk Two Moons. Although the former has to do with a make-believe world and the latter with a roadtrip and mysteries, they both share a common theme. In both stories, the authors show us that although losing someone close is a difficult thing to go through, we must accept it and keep going.
Edgar Allan Poe, the famous American author, loves to use the topics of love and loss when he writes his poems. One of his most influential topics is when he writes about loss. Whether it is the loss of a loved one, as shown in “Annabel Lee” or the loss of someone’s dignity as shown in “Hop-Frog”, Poe always seems to leave an impression on the reader's mind. Loss is one of the most influential emotions that a human can face. It has thrown people into depression, started drug addictions, and even can become an incentive for murder. No matter what, humans will always be influenced by loss, especially the loss of something important, more than anything.
Loss has been experienced over centuries and many poets have written on the subject. William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30 and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam are two poems from different eras that express the idea of loss. Both were written after the loss of a close male friend, and both are only one poem from a series of poems. Shakespeare lived in England where he was born in 1564 and died in 1616 and Tennyson also lived in England where he was born in 1809 and died in 1892, the poems being written in 1609 and between 1833 and 1850 respectively. Whilst the poet’s historical and cultural contexts are different, and there are differences in structure and poetic devices used in the two poems, there are also similarities in the expression and feelings engendered by the loss of a loved one.
...ng out of the ordinary, we see it as a barrier in the way of our expected paths. As I came to accept my father’s death, I stopped seeing it as a barrier, but as a part of my path. Since I was a little girl, my father had raised me to be a strong-headed, persevering young woman. He always used to tell me that resilience is the key to life. If I could overcome an obstacle or recover from a strong blow, I could do anything. As I was coping with his death, I thought back to all the lessons he had taught me growing up. It was at that moment that I realized what the purpose of my father’s death was. His death was an opportunity for me to test myself on whether I could take all that he had instilled in me and use it when confronted with such an obstacle. I welcomed this challenge, knowing that it was time to show myself what I was made of, time to make my father proud.
For the majority of the poem, a lot of information is only hinted to the reader through the use of foreshadowing. This extensive use of foreshadowing also serves to distance the narrator from what is happening around him, putting him in an almost observatory state. The narrator sees his father and mother crying, his neighbors and family friends offering their condolences, and the ambulance arriving with the corpse are all hinting to the death of his brother. The reader does not get an idea of even who has died until the very end, knowing only that the death has greatly affected the narrator and his
...eliefs help ease the passing of a loved one, assuring themselves that there is a life after death and that it is assuredly better than this one. On the other hand, death, for some, is an escape from their troubles. They wish it upon themselves because they believe they have no other options. Then there is the most despicable act of murder. The man who believes he possesses the right to strip someone of his or her own life. Once the illusion is broken that there is only one interpretation to the poem, there is no looking back. Wordsworth forces the reader to experience the different sides of death no matter how different or repulsive they may be. However, Wordsworth writes the poem so that each experience comes from the same eight lines of metrical verse. Death, to Wordsworth, is all encompassing, no matter who is involved; eventually it reels everyone into its web.
We all know that there are hard times in life that we all have to endure. One example of this recently was when my brother Caleb and his fiancée Hannah were driving my car to my grandparents house a week or so ago. I was working at the Health Club when suddenly I got a phone call asking if I had heard what happened. Soon I learned that on the way to my grandparent’s house, my brother had swerved off the road and over corrected, causing him to hit a guard rail and roll my car down the highway going sixty five miles per hour. This whole story came as a complete shock to me, thankfully they are both okay, but my car, that is a different story. Anyway, this whole situation made me think of what would have happened if I were in their shoes, and what would have happened if they wouldn’t have been so lucky. In the same way, Thomas Gray, the author of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” writes about how he imagines peoples’ lives that are dead, and then imagines his own and how people will think of him after he passes. In Gary’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” there are three messages learned about death.
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.