ipl-logo

Grieving In Donald Hall's Kill The Day

1124 Words5 Pages

For my poetry paper I have chosen the poem "Kill the Day" by Donald Hall. A poem that goes through the process of what it is like to grieve for that significant other that passes away. The way Hall describes grieving makes it sounds as if there are stages to it. These stages can be categorized as denial, sorrow and anger and finally, acceptance. Each stage brings its own obstacles and challenge for one to deal with. Which is what Donald Hall paints beautifully in "Kill the Day". The first way Hall describes his grief is that it didn’t even feel like he was in the same world. As if he was in a state of limbo his first year of her absence. Starting off the poem depicting a car flying off a pier "for a year without gaining or losing altitude" (pg 386 stanza 1 line 3). If you have ever heard of someone describing a major car crash, where they took off into the air this may sound very similar. An uncle of mine once told the story of when he himself was in a crash that had completely flipped his car. In this story he described how when you're in the air for a brief second it felt as if nothing matters at all and almost forgot where he was. Even though it was only for one second it felt as if time had stretched out that second to the end of time. Which I feel is the point that Donald Hall makes. That even though she is gone he feels that suspended moment of when she was …show more content…

Displaying that grieving doesn’t have to be labeled as one emotion. That its ok to be sad, mad or joyous at times of grief. We don’t have to be in a constant state of depression. We can let our other emotions out as well to show the full picture of what we feel. Even though we may never ever be able to get over the mountain of sorrow that plagues us, we can do our best to incorporate that process of climbing over it in our everyday

Open Document