Both poets present different attitudes towards death. Larkin has a more reflective view on death; death seems to be intimidating in his poems however he reflects on the ways in which it affects us all. In Ambulances he uses a vehicle as a subject matter in order to symbolise death metaphorically. Similarly to this Plath uses the subject matter of tulips in her poem ‘Tulips’ to represent the monotony of life and how they are disturbing her death. Plath’s ironic view on death helps her to explore how death has affected her personally, she does this by using a 3rd person point of view in her poem ‘Edge’ which describes her state and appearance after death.
Dickinson’s Because I could not stop for death and Dylan Thomas’s do not go gentle into that good night both demonstrate the nature of death, however Dickinson explores the appreciation for life and abruptness of death, while Thomas contends death by showing remorse for death. Lit elements. Dylan Thomas poetry was written when his father fell ill and was on the verge of death. Two phrases that are mentioned throughout the tercets are “rage rage against the dying of the light.” and “ do not go gentle into that good night”. They are both similar in meaning to fight against death.
In the aftermath of his father’s murder, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and over the course of the play considers death from many perspectives: the spiritual aftermath of death, represented by the ghost, and the physical reminders of the dead, such as Yorick’s skull and the decaying corpses in the cemetery. The theme of death is linked to the themes of spirituality, truth, and the uncertainty of whether death will be the answer to Hamlet’s deepest questions. Hamlet contemplates his own death, whether suicide is a morally legitimate action in an unbearably painful world. Suicide continues to be contemplated by people today; there are many young Ophelias, who, heart-broken and confused, turn to suicide as their only way out. Hamlet is also faced with his own mortality when he loses his father.
Q. Compare how futility and one other poem from 'conflict' deal with the theme of death? I will be comparing the two poems; futility and Mametz wood from 'conflict' in regards’ to the theme of death. The poems futility and Mametz wood both deal with the grim subject of death on the battlefield, and how those who fell to this fate were often left where they fell – with their last moments captured in either their corpses soon after or the skeletons discovered long after the war had ended. Neither of the two poems deals directly with the moment of death, but rather reflection on the loss of young life.
All of the good things of the once lively city had gone away while the evil starts to build up its power and the city is in ruins. The message Edgar is trying to send out is that even the most beautiful things in life may be covered in darkness and the beauty of it all is gone. As I have mentioned Edgar had lost his mother, his brother, eventually his father, and his cousin/wife to death and it left his mind in dark shadows causing grieve and depression. Edgar Allan Poe had developed a drinking problem later on in life because he couldn’t live with reality. I have lost someone close to me and I know that darkness falls and it can bring you to a very depressed state, which is where Edgar had fallen.
This experience shocked Browning but also taught him to avoid this kind of death. Firstly, Browning uses juxtaposition in “Apparent Failure” to amplify the differences in quality of life. This is shown by “So killed themselves: and now, enthroned Each on his copper couch, they lay”. As we see in the quotation, life is brusquely handled, whilst in death their position is raised as they are “enthroned”. The added use of “they” ultimately shows the loss or lack of identity held by these men in life or death.
Emily depicts death in an unconventional way, challenging the age old belief of death and its elation to immortality in death. In stanza one, Dickinson personifies death, as being a gentleman with human characteristics. This interpretation put a twist to the age old description of death as a cryptic, sinister figure from hell that comes for our soul and invokes fear into our very being. The speaker said “‘because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me’” (line 1-2), this woman was too busy with her everyday life that she never thought of the inevitability of death. Traditionally, it is taught that death cares and waits for no one; ironically, he ‘kindly’ stops for her, portraying her as though they are going on a date.
Compare the ways in which Donne and Auden present death in ‘Death be not proud’ and ‘Funeral Blues’ Donne and Auden’s poems have some similarities and some differences. They are both poems about death, and in both poems they are talking about the negatives death has but Death be not proud is addressing death and Funeral Blues is addressing the reader. They both use imperatives in similar ways aswell. Both poems are taking negatively about death but portray their feelings very differently. Donne’s attitude in ‘Death be no proud’ is aggressive whereas Auden’s is sad and distraught.
Explore the ways poets present their feelings about relationships Both of these poems (Remembrance and 04/01/07) are both about death and loss in relationship, in 04/01/07 the loss is a mans mother and in Remembrance the loss is about a women’s lover who has died quite a long time ago whereas in 04/01/07 the man has just received a phone call from his brother informing him of his mother’s death therefore for the brothers just finding must then mean that the death has happened very recently compared to Remembrance because your first and automatic emotions towards a death are different to the ones after it sinks in for a while. For example one of the first emotions you will feel when you know of a death of someone near to you would be something like shock or a sudden rush of sadness but as time goes on the feelings change more over to the side of grieving and just missing the person in general. Firstly Ian McMillian presents his feelings from the get go of a very strong and emotionally tight relationship with his mother, we can clearly see this because as soon as he hears the bad news from his brother it immediately affects him and also quite strongly. “And I feel the tears slap my torn face.” This shows that he was very fond of his mother hence this sudden and strong reaction to the news of her death you would expect this from her son but this would not happen in all cases in which maybe the mother and son did not get on, he would still be sad that his mother had died but he may not of necessarily cried. In Remembrance however the way this poet (Emily Brontë) presented her feelings about relationships slightly differently due partly to the story told in her poem and the way that it’s written portrays different feelings.
In Emily Dickinson’s allegorical poem “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,” the narrator uses the extended metaphor of a funeral to describe the loss of a part of mind (most likely her sanity). By doing so, she seems to distance and isolate herself from the people and events that caused her loss, instead choosing to detail the progression of the funeral to parallel her descent into madness. This allegory is supported by different structural aspects of the poem, which include choices of words or groups of words to illustrate different aspects of the funeral and the emotional state of the narrator, as well as the overall form of the poem. While the words Dickinson uses are straightforward and easy enough to understand the first time around, on closer reading her word choices are very specific. In the first line, she writes, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” (1), which very clearly tells the reader that the funeral she is about to recount is internal and is being held for some part of her mind.