To what extent has the comparison you have made between W;t and Donne’s poetry shown how particular concerns, although timeless, impact differently on individuals in different contexts? John Donne a metaphysical poet from the 17th Century examines death and elements of the human conditions through his poems ‘Death be not Proud,’ ‘The Relic’ and ‘A Valediction; Forbidding Mourning.’ The conditions of humanity, death and pain are then recreated in the comparative text W;t by Margaret Edson. The particular concerns that Donne highlights in his poetry fashion the axis on which W;t rotates. The impact of the 17th Century context caused Donne to reject the medieval ideals about death. Edson constructs her protagonist to flow parallel to John Donne’s philosophies, resurrecting the metaphysics he made timeless.
Whispers of Immortality depicts imagery of hissing rumours; reminding the reader that in life they create the image of themselves they wish to remain after they relinquish this power in death. The almost threatening tone of the poem attempts to evoke fear in the reader by reminding them of this mortality. The whispers that create this everlasting reputation bring to mind a poem of Dante’s, from which Eliot takes the epigraph to Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The epigraph depicts a character from Dante’s Inferno, who after death takes exhaustive steps to avoid saying anything wrong, that may be carried back to Earth from the underworld and affect his reputation or further his punishment in purgatory. Eliot’s description of ‘Daffodil bulbs instead of balls’ occupying the eyes of the corpse,
Comparing Two Poems The Old Familiar Faces by Charles Lamb and Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney The poems “The Old Familiar Faces” by Charles Lamb and “Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney have both similarities and difference. Both are sad poems about tragedies and want to inspire pity in the reader. Also both of them had a very similar structure. However, the diction is completely different as well as the imagery. Both poems explore sensations of grief, sadness, mortality and having to cope with the disappearance of loved ones.
Reader’s Response: The Hollow Men While reading the T.S Eliot’s “The Hollow Men”, I could feel the depressing tone that he was trying to convey to the readers. I think that this poem is basically talking about the depressing depiction of human kind. I think that the hollow men represent the humans on earth that are wandering around in search of something that doesn’t necessarily exist, but can also represent soldiers in war, who are stuffed with ideas of what people think about them and false assumptions. The hollow men are aware of their unfortunate fate so they try to hide from that and their insecurities by disguising themselves in costumes that reflect the ugly immoral side of themselves and reveal their animalistic side. The implementation of nursery rhymes in the poem has multiple meanings to me.
The author uses a metaphor by comparing waving to drowning. This is a device because the action of waving to a person, compared to drowning is completely different. This shows the author was trying to show society is not very concerned about what others are doing, and are just concerned about them. One can be in need of help miserably, but one will not give one the help needed to fix a situation. This poem shows that point very well through such a metaphor.
This alternate rhyme scheme, which changes from one quartet to the next, gives the poem a sense of purpose. Each of the two stanzas of the sonnet, begins with a question that the remainder of the section answers. By using, the sonnet structure in his poem, Owen is able to introduce a touch of irony, because the traditional function of a sonnet is to describe love. However, since the main content of this poem is of anti-love, the reader is therefore able to appreciate the deaths of the soldiers. The octet is generally dominated by the sound of battle while the sestet is characterized by muted grief.
Several thematic ideas are portrayed in the poetry of William Blake and Seamus Heaney, one such idea distinctive to both poets is a loss of innocence, this idea is conveyed in several ways. Blake reflects this in the exploitation of the less fortunate by the religious upper class and how the introduction of religion has diminished a place of happiness whereas Heaney reflects this in an disappointing adventure with friends and how one has to cope with the tragic death of someone dear at a young age. A loss of innocence in the exploitation of the less fortunate by the religious upper class is conveyed in the poem ‘Holy Thursday’ (Experience) by William Blake as it is about a special occasion where poor children are presented before their sponsors at a church service to give thanks. The poem is written from the point of view of someone seated in the congregation as the third person narrative 'Is this a holy thing to see' is used rhetorically. This gives the reader the impression that Blake is asking them to consider the true nature of such an event as the last syllable is stressed in the masculine verb 'see' which highlights his serious tone of voice.
The fact that he is a single traveler only further serves to illustrate the singular nature of the human condition; no matter when or how we hear the call of death, we all die alone. It is no surprise then, with such a theme, that the tone of the work is mournful, the rhythms sedate. I kinda feel that while Longfellow’s poem is essentially iambic (written in a series of stressed and unstressed syllables), the writer also makes use of the spondee, pairing two stressed syllables, to avoid a tone and meter that sing-song like a Hallmark greeting card. In addition, the flow of the lines naturally pauses when read aloud. This caesura serves to reinforce the steady iambic beat.
One would not expect Dickinson to use the fading of light for poems about death. Dickinson tends to toy with the subject in many of her works. “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” falls under the vast category associated with the light imagery in poems about death. Immediately in the first line, Dickinson implies that there is some force that makes it impossible to succumb to death’s call. Following in the second line, “He kindly stopped for me”, implies that the creeping chill of death that was upon her drew back to a halt.
Uncertain, untimely death, is the tone that we get from the poem. We do not know when we will die, and when we do there can be a hesitation, from something as small as a Fly. It does not matter what you died for, you are dead is the theme for “I died for Beauty – but was Scarce”. In the poem, the speaker is talking about dying for beauty, or dying for truth. The speaker is saying that they have a goal to die for beauty or for truth.