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Stop All The Clocks Analysis

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Every individual will experience grief within their lifetime and this is revealed by James McAuley and W.H.Auden in their poems “Pieta” and “Stop all the clocks”. These two poems remain similar in the means that two men are experiencing grief. However they both are experiencing it differently with their feelings and the person who died. “Pieta” expresses a grieving father who is accepting of his grief whereas “Stop all the clocks” reflects upon a man who is full of anguish, grieving for the loss of his lover.
Exploring the heartache of a grieving father on the anniversary of his child death “Pieta” recounts how a child came metaphorically “early into the light” and “lived a day and night, then died.” Similarly “Stop all the clocks” also focusses …show more content…

Although similar they contrast in their different ways of expressing loss. ‘Mirror” expresses the grief of a woman who has lost her youth whereas “We Are Going” exposes the tragic loss and annihilation of an Indigenous community.
The reality of aging cannot be escaped and “Mirror” tells the story of a woman dejected by the loss of her youth. Similarly “We Are Going” also focusses on loss, but instead of focussing upon the experience of an individual, it is the loss of a community which concerns Noonucaal. Plath’s narrator is challenged by the aging process and the narrator in mirror reflects upon whatever it sees and metaphorically “swallows it immediately” traumatising the mental state of the woman. Noonuccal’s narrator has accepted that an indigenous community is being lost and the alliterative “semi-naked band subdued and silent” is a reflection of their …show more content…

Plath showcases imagery of
“Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is” to express the truth and harsh reality of loss in the reflection of the water in the lake, leaving behind a distorted feeling as she cries to have her physical youth appearance returned. In contrast with Plath, Noonuccal expresses with the repetition of “we” throughout the middle stanzas to demonstrate that the poet is a part of a disappearing race.
“We are the old ceremonies, the laws of the

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