“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…
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…
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
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
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 theme of the poem is grieving the death of the man in a very unique way. The
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.
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 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.
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 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
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.
...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.