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The theme of death in poetry
Death in poetry
Dylan Thomas view of death
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A variety of issues are examined in Dawe’s poetry, most of which, aren’t uniquely Australian. In ‘The Wholly Innocent’, the poet utilises the narrator being an unborn baby to express their opinion on abortion. The emotive language; “defenceless as a lamb” and comparisons of abortion to “genocide”, all turn this poem into a type of activism, for pro-life; a concept that is certainly not uniquely Australian; as abortion is only legal (on request) in 4 states and territories. These issues aren’t always directly referenced in Dawe’s poetry, much like in ‘The Family Man’, which chooses to explore suicide and it’s effect. The man who killed himself had no name - he was just a statistic, that had “all qualifications blown away with a trigger’s touch”.
Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was written in 1962 a time filled with civil unrest. Kesey use of the “black boy” versus colored in This Side of Paradise reflected the time period. Historically, the word boy meant a male child, but during the 1962 “boy” was used in a derogatory way to belittle Black men. Environmental influences are one of the factors that influenced in the novel. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a mental hospital.
‘For What It’s Worth’ by Buffalo Springfield has a logical message because it is referring to the Sunset Strip Riots that took place in Hollywood during the 1960’s. People protested when they lost their civil rights due to a curfew law that was put into place. The song says, “Stop, children, what’s that sound. Everybody look- what’s going down?”
Whitman and Dickinson share the theme of death in their work, while Whitman decides to speak of death in a more realistic point of view, Dickinson speaks of the theme in a more conceptual one. In Whitman’s poems, he likes to have a more empathic view of individuals and their ways of living. For example, in Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, the poet talks about not just of himself, but all human beings, and of how mankind works into the world and the life of it. Even though the poem mostly talks about life and the happiness of it, Whitman describes also that life itself has its ending, and that is the theme of death. For Dickinson, she is the complete opposite of happiness.
The desire to be independent and free is found within all individuals. Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening and John Ford’s film The Searchers depict the struggles of their protagonists as they embark on journeys to discover their true selves. The protagonists of these two texts both find themselves fighting to establish a balance between the domestic and the natural world. The domestic world is governed by society and its expectations, whilst the natural world is free of societal expectations and represents the individuality that the protagonists are trying to find. Edna, the protagonist of The Awakening, begins to rebel against societal expectations for her as a mother and wife in favor of independence and freedom.
“You have to make choices even when there is nothing to choose from.” This words from Peter Zilahy perfectly describes making a decision whether there is a choice or not, but making a decision means it will have a consequence. In William E. Stafford’s “Travelling through the Dark” presents readers with the difficulty of making a decision. One night, he was travelling along a mountain street under which the Wilson Water, he discovered a corpse of a doe and he decided to push the doe’s corpse into the river, but moving closer to the corpse of the doe was still warm on its belly indicated there is still a fawn in her, waiting to be born. After thinking for a while, he decided to push the doe’s corpse into the flowing Wilson Water to ensure safety of other motorists.
An analysis of the poetic devices in “I Will Not Bow” by Breaking Benjamin written by Benjamin Burnley and Jasen Rauch, and “Not Gonna Die” by Skillet written by John Cooper demonstrates that John Cooper creates a better argument about how not to give up when everything in one person’s world comes crashing down and pushes one to the ground. Music and lyrics of the song “I Will Not Bow” has a less positive tone, and because of this it touches the heart of the person harder than the other song. But despite that, song “Not Gonna Die” is more motivating, it better encourages to continue to fight for what a person believe in. Metaphor and connotation from these two songs will be compared to prove this point.
In the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night,” the poet uses a metaphor to compare death as “night” and “dying of the light.” Dylan Thomas repeats the lines “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” in each stanza to emphasize that all men should not accept death, but fight it until their last breath. He describes four types of dying men before addressing his father. First, he states that intelligent men that know death is near and have not had any impact on society still fight to live: “though wise men at their end know dark is right, / Because their words had forked no lightning they / do not go gentle into the good night.” (Lines 4-6).
The poem, At Mornington was written by Australian poet, Gwen Harwood. It was published in 1975 under her own name. At Mornington is about a woman reminiscing about her past when she is with her friend. There are many themes explored in this poem including memory, death and time passing.
The poem A Step Away From Them by Frank O’Hara has five stanzas written in a free verse format with no distinguishable rhyme scheme or meter. The poem uses the following asymmetrical line structure “14-10-9-13-3” while using poetic devices such as enjambment, imagery, and allusion to create each stanza. A Step Away From Them occurs in one place, New York City. We know this because of the lines, “On/ to Times Square, / where the sign/blows smoke over my head” (13-14) and “the Manhattan Storage Warehouse.”
A NOBLE HEART A lover can buy love peddled like a soda effervescent And gift it glibly to a bubbly bunny with feelings nascent. Deed done, departs rapidly with a freewheeling flourish... At Dawn, the lassie, laconic,sees a Night 's dream vanish-- A wide-eyed doe, dourly, realizes how her will was bent ! Her vow to chastity forgotten, untempered emotions uncaged At Noon,recalls how a sllck love-drama comes to be staged: Trap adroitly the weak flesh hosting a weakened resolve; The rake beguiling her to be only too willing to serve
Death can be often talked about when it the topic of coming of age arises, as the child at once begins to comprehend and look forward to the future rather than mostly living in the moment. Two poems, The Ball Poem by John Berryman and Quinceanera by Judith Ortiz Cofer, associate death with coming of age in their poetry. In Quinceanera, death is used as a symbol for her transition from childhood to adulthood, the narrator seemingly looking at her loss of childhood as a sort of death in itself, to begin a new life. In the story, she uses words depicting this thought process, such as “dead children”, “black”, “skull”, and “bones”. The central way she talks about death is through blood (per say, a way to discuss her coming of age physically).
“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson is a poem about death being personified in an odd and imaginative way. The poet has a personal encounter with Death, who is male and drives a horse-carriage. They go on a mysterious journey through time and from life to death to an afterlife. The poem begins with its first line being the title, but Emily Dickinson’s poems were written without a title and only numbered when published, after she died in 1886.
They also remind us that in life, weather you are waiting for death or preparing for it, death will always come sooner or later. Both poems suggest that the only immortality we have is in the afterlife, in
C) Dylan Thomas is the author of the poem “Do Not Go Gentle into the Night”. The poem general is about urging the individual who is in the death bed. The poet’s dad is in the passing bed, in this poem. He needs his dad to battle against death. He realizes that the passing is unavoidable.