The use of personification, metaphors, and imagery draws you into the poem and makes you feel the pain and grief of losing a loved one while also communicating the theme of death. First of all, I noticed the use of personification in the second stanza. Personification is when human characteristics are given to an inanimate object. The poet describes how the aeroplanes “circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead” (Auden 539). While aeroplanes do not have the ability to scribble or to moan, saying that they do adds complexity to the poem.
Lucy Berry, English essay “Apparent Failure” “So killed themselves: and now, enthroned Each on his copper couch, they lay” Discuss the ways in which Browning presents life and death in this poem. In your answer, explore the effects of language, imagery and verse form, and consider how this poem relates to other poems by Browning that you have studied. In the poem “Apparent Failure”, Browning presents death in an inhumane, animalistic way due to the Morgue being an old slaughter house. He contrasts life and death to display his anger at the status afforded to death (which weren’t offered in life). This experience shocked Browning but also taught him to avoid this kind of death.
Edgar Allen Poe wrote The Raven because his wife, Virginia, was dying of tuberculosis. To me I think the poem is about self torture and about being consumed by the past. The raven symbolizes the protagonist’s subconscious, trying to send him a message that pain and misery in which he has deluded himself into will never go away. It isn’t until nearly at the end of the poem that the
There is nothing romantic about war in Slaughterhouse-Five. In fact, the villains of the novel are the ones who continue to romanticize violence and killing, men like Bertram Copeland Rumfoord and even foolish Roland Weary. Vonnegut shows that war is inevitable. Stopping a war, or writing an anti-war novel, is like stopping a glacier: it is an exercise in futility. As a result, humans lose their free will and become victims in the machinery of war, casualties of political ends.
In this poem, Emily Dickinson creates just that in lines five and six, “The Eyes around—had wrung them dry— / And Breaths were gathering firm” (Dickinson 5-6). Here, Dickinson uses a metonymy, a figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object, or concept for that of another to which it is related. The “Eyes” are the mourners, and “wrung them dry” is supposed to mean that they cried all the tears they possibly could. Evidently, these people are emotional due to the loss of their loved one. “Breaths were gathering firm” is another example of a metonymy.
But in line 3, the author wrote that, “I take my curses back”(line4) and “I am sorry for that evil wish” (line 7). The author feels sorry of parents and wants to apologize to them, but his parents died. He never has the chance to talk to them any more. It shows the tone of regret in this poem. Besides, the tone of the other poem “Seed-Merchant’s Son” is also anger at the beginning.
The subject of “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is that a man is driven insane by the loss of his girlfriend. The raven comes and brings fear to him. Whenever he asks a question, the raven responds by saying “Nevermore”. It states in the poem, “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, … Nameless here for evermore” (7-12). This quote means that the narrator still remembers that night that his girlfriend dies and he is in great sorrow for his lost for Lenore.
Immediately Duffy portrays to us the suffering Mrs Lazarus is going through; “I had wept for night and a day,” from this we also see Duffy is speaking on behalf of Mrs Lazarus, with her voice and narrative, showing she is giving Mrs Lazarus a voice. The whole poem is based upon the pain, hurt, and loss, love, mourning of Mrs Lazarus and how she finally moved on but then was ripped away from her through his resurrection. “Howled, shrieked, clawed,” this shows that Mrs Lazarus was physically out of control; Duffy gives her animal like expression, suggesting her behaviour was un-human like. Furthermore the word “shrieked” is a violent verb suggesting self harm. Duffy, as Mrs Lazarus, later explains the grief has led her to throwing up; “retched,” this shows that Mrs Lazarus has led herself to tormenting herself, as she is self harming and throwing up.
Pattern The poem “Funeral Blues”, written by W. H. Auden, is based on a loved one who is deceased. The poem is written based on nontraditional and traditional elements. This poem is also based on several different themes such as death, order and disorder, and also the meaning of love. Throughout the poem W. H. Auden mixes his stanzas with some words that rhyme and rarely some that don’t. “This coupling of ordered and unordered patterns symbolizes the speaker’s efforts, and final failure, to reestablish order in his life after suffering the devastating loss of a loved one.
Heathcliff overcomes the need to cause grief for the third generation; as he desires to be reunited with Catherine in the grave. The death of Catherine Linton suggests a major turning point in Wuthering Heights. Catherine’s death has significant impact on Heathcliff; the idea that they were one in spirit greatly affects Heathcliff throughout the second half of the novel. When Heathcliff is mourning the death of Catherine, he says, “may she wake in torment.” Then he prays for Catherine to haunt him and never leave him alone, for “I cannot live without my soul.” This line implies that there is a mutual relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff. The fact that Heathcliff feels Catherine is truly a part of his soul will make him feel incomplete for the remainder of the novel.