Anne Sexton tells of Icarus plunging to his death “while his sensible daddy goes straight to town,” in her poem ‘To a Friend Whose Work has come to Triumph.’ In the myth Daedalus searches the ocean for his lost son. Maybe he feels guilty for being the maker of such faulty wings. Or perhaps he blames his son for not heeding his warnings, and really is callous in reactions. When reading variations of this myth, they almost speak to your own life’s experiences and lessons we have all learned. These authors explore the relationship between classical myth and contemporary life.
Have No Fear, Death is Here! In the following three poems, "That Time of Year", "Crossing the Bar", and "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"; they portray a positive view of death to help the reader reconcile dying. In “That Time of Year”, the poet Alfred Tennyson prepared his friend, not for the approaching literal death of his body, but the metaphorical death of his youth and passion. “In me though see'st the glowing of such fire, That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon must expire,” this quote from the poem explains how the poet says he is the ember lying on the dying flame of youth, and that as the death proceeds, his youth will finally expire. Not all can be forever young, but sooner or later must begin to age and every breath you take, you draw closer to the end.
Also by referring to line five the “pictures” of death, is implied that sleep is just a short resemblance of death, making death seem effortless and comprehensible, removing the fear of the unknown. In the first section, John Donne personifies death. Donne compares death to sleep; since sleep is more pleasurable then death must be good. The best men willingly go to death and they rest their bones and their soul goes to heaven. He addresses death as an equal or inferior.
Three poems which are mainly based on time but also use time to bring forth other themes are Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”, Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and T.S Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. In Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” there are two major themes time and death and as is the case with many other poems of the same nature, time is used to bring more emphasis to and progress the theme of death. The first stanza refers to Death as a gentleman for he “kindly stopped” for the speaker as he was to take her along her journey. This is in high contrast to a more common view of death in which it is personified as a sinister unforgiving character who is merciless and unforgiving in his task. The second stanza states “We slowly drove—He knew no haste” (line5) which points out how slowly Death’s carriage progresses while taking the speaker away as if time was of no importance.
In the poem Mid-Term Break, written in the form of an elegy, Heaney explores the emotional response to the loss of a loved one through revisiting his younger self's confrontation with the death of his four year old brother. His poem Blackberry Picking, largely autobiographical in content, doesn't explore the death on such a personal level as Mid-Term Break; though it is used as a conceit to explore metaphysical ideas about mortality and humanity. Death is a very emotional and personal experience and the way in which one responds to the death and the effects it has varies greatly in each individual. Mid-Term Break is a poignant poem that is driven by the emotional power of Heaney’s very muted and understated response which then contrasts with the a focus on the parent’s reaction to convey the shocking impact the death has on the family. The unnerving double meaning of the words “hard blow” highlights the often awkward approach humans fall into when offering their condolences, reminding us how ill-equipped humans are when faced with death, especially in such tragic circumstances.
Despite Sylvia Plath’s long, drawn out, detailed poetry, her poems revolve around a central message. Plath’s dark personality helped to shape her poetry. The use of figurative language, recurring images, and poetic elements of poetry allow active participation from the reader. The common theme throughout her poetry may not become evident until the poem is done being read. Plath is able to strongly convey a central theme of suicide by relief of pain, and the result of abandonment and inactivity.
His only solution to escape sadness is to leave the living to join the world of the dead but at this moment of the play, Hamlet his not able to take this decision yet. 1. To live among the dead : a deep mourning This passage is the continuation of the previous one but it’s the very first time that Hamlet is alone on the stage, addressing both God and the audience in a monologue through which he expresses his sadness caused by the loss of his father. a. The praise of a dead father In this excerpt, Hamlet makes a short description of his father which can be seen as a funeral oration, even though it does not take place on the day of his funerals.
Mid-Term Break The poem is about the death of Heaney's infant brother (Christopher) and how people (including himself) reacted to this. The poem's title suggests a holiday but this “break” does not happen for pleasant reasons. For most of the poem Heaney writes of people's unnatural reactions, but at the end he is able to grieve honestly. The boredom of waiting appears in the counting of bells but “knelling” suggests a funeral bell, rather than a bell for lessons. The modern reader may be struck by the neighbours' driving the young Seamus home - his parents may not have a car (quite usual then - Heaney was born in 1939, and is here at boarding school, so this is the 1950s) or, more likely, were too busy at home, and relied on their neighbours to help.
There are many places where the theme of suicide appears in the poem. The first stanza of the poem contains three lines that are repeated throughout the poem. This stanza is the building block for the rest of the poem. These lines are implying that Sylvia feels that she is able to control life and death. "I shut my eyes .
Death is a theme that has be revisited by many authors and poets time and again in countless ways with several interpretations. Among these are the ideas that death is the absolute conflict that results in self discovery or the natural cycle of life ("Twentieth Century Literature"). Death has been viewed as a way of explaining life itself and the concept of living to the fullest. As we explore further, one might even go so far as to say that death as a theme in literature can be viewed as a source of the creation of literature ("Twentieth Century Literature"). The constant repetition of