Analysis Of Kenneth Slessor 's Poem ' Five Bells

Along with the death of a loved one or the loss of a significant piece in one’s life comes a time of mourning. How gradually one heals and recuperates from sorrow is personal and cannot be dictated by another’s schedule. In “Snowbanks North of the House,” one significant component is how Bly uses the natural world to represent the continuation of life after death. “And the sea lifts and falls all night, the moon goes on / through the unattached heavens alone” (Bly 19-20). Nature continues on despite someone’s personal anguish. This poem encourages people to relinquish their agony and to return to normal life because the universe pays no attention to you. Sometimes this is easier said than done, as Gonzalez writes in “1999.” The alleviation of despair is not immediate following loss. As shown in this poem, even years after a tragedy, there are lasting effects on people. The speaker tells of the years that have passed since the sibling’s death. “Then the year / my stomach hurt all year, & then / the year no one spoke of you” (Gonzalez 15-17). The speaker explains that as the years pass, people begin to accept the reality of the death and recover. However, the speaker has a sorrowful tone about him or her. After all the years that have gone by, the speaker continues to feel grief and is heartbroken over the death. The speaker is frustrated that no one else seems to reciprocate the

Spring is the season of growth, revival and beginnings. In the poems “Spring and All” by William Carlos Williams and “For Jane Meyers” by Louise Gluck, the poets talk about this very season. In fact, the two poems are contradictory, in that, Williams writes about the bleakness of winter and the awakening of spring. On the other hand, Gluck’s romantic poetry associates the natural renewal of spring with bereavement and death. Both poets use abundant imagery, symbolism, metaphors, different tones, and similes, to affirm their contending attitudes towards the season. Consequently, although the poems are about the same subject, the demeanor of the poets are varied.

In ‘I kneel to pick frail melancholy flowers among ashes and loam’ a tone of loneliness and sadness is established as the persona enters. Harwood describes the violets as ‘frail’ and ‘melancholy’, terms that arn’t usually associated with flowers. This is also explored in the juxtaposition of ‘ashes’ and ‘loam’. Ash is symbolic of death and decay which contradicts the ‘loam’, symbolic of life and birth. The persona’s dark and unpleasant perceptions reveal their uncertainty and state of mind. The present tense indicates the persona’s adulthood and their sense of longing and unsatisfaction conveyed through the nostalgic delivery of

Poets, Judith Wright, Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickenson all express their views on life and death, however, do so in varying manners. Through imagery, Wright and Plath both consider life’s beginnings, however, Wright considers it to be a beautiful gift, whereas Plath views birth as an empty burden. Subsequently, through structure Dickenson and Wright each acknowledge life, expressing how in some cases it is difficult, yet in other circumstances it is celebrated. Finally, through tone, Dickenson and Plath convey their views on death, yet differ in that Plath believes it is purifying and holds a sick fascination with it, while Dickenson instead holds a unique curiosity about it. Therefore, whilst each poet recognises the journey of birth,

Death is something that at some point will come to each of us and has been explored in many forms of literature. “The Raven” and “Incident in a Rose Garden” are two poems that explore common beliefs and misconceptions about death. Though both poems differ in setting, tone, and mood there are surprising similarities in the literary tools they use and in the messages they attempt to convey. The setting and mood establish the tone and feel of a poem. In “The Raven” we are launched into a bleak and dreary winters night where a depressed narrator pines for his dead girlfriend.

The last line in the poem “and since they were not the ones dead, turned to their own affairs” lacks the emotions the reader would expect a person to feel after a death of a close family member. But instead, it carries a neutral tone which implies that death doesn’t even matter anymore because it happened too often that the value of life became really low, these people are too poor so in order to survive, they must move on so that their lives can continue. A horrible sensory image was presented in the poem when the “saw leaped out at the boy’s hand” and is continued throughout the poem when “the boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh…the hand was gone already…and that ended it”, this shows emphasis to the numbness the child felt. The poem continues with the same cold tone without any expression of emotion or feelings included except for pain, which emphasizes the lack of sympathy given. Not only did the death of this child placed no effect on anyone in the society but he was also immediately forgotten as he has left nothing special enough behind for people to remember him, so “since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs”. This proves that life still carries on the same way whether he is present or not, as he is insignificant and that his death

As one of the most frequently used themes, death has been portrayed and understood differently throughout modern history as well as by poets Christina Rossetti and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in “Remember” and the “Cross of Snow.” It appears in literature as the preeminent dilemma, one that is often met by emotions such as grief, hopefulness, depression, and one that can encompass the entire essence of any writing piece. However, despite Rossetti’s “Remember” and Longfellow’s “Cross of Snow” employing death as a universal similarity, the tones, narratives, and syntaxes of the poems help create two entire different images of what the works are about in the readers’ minds.

Similarly, as “Stop all of the Clocks” develops the narrator metaphorically and onomatopoeically highlights that everything in life must acknowledge the death and experience it with him. Outward signs of cotton gloves and bows with doves is a metaphor for the person’s acknowledgement of death. The importance of the deceased love extends to every facet of the narrator’s life because they belonged in every moment that the narrator lived. In this moment of grief, the narrator feels betrayed because they invested in a love which was not eternal.

In my thoughts, Harwood’s poetry engages readers through its poetic treatment of loss and consolation throughout relationships as well as its exploration of universal themes about human existence and processes of life. Harwood’s poetry validates the consoling influence of childhood experiences upon adult development evident in both At Mornington and A Valediction where they both explore one sense of loss and consolidation. Harwood cleverly includes personas with their own feelings and anxieties to outlook on the present and future and the power of memories held with past relationships. Relationships link within Harwood’s poetry as throughout life she experiences suffering and includes her personal voice and life within the story of her poem.

The idea of time can also be seen throughout ‘Five bells’ which is considered to be Slessor’s best poem and is one of Australia’s best known works. The poem was written in remembrance of Slessor’s friend Joe and the character he was as well as revealing the effect his death had on Slessor.

In both “Forgetfulness” and “On Turning Ten,” Billy Collins writes in free verse, allowing him the creative freedom to convey his thoughts without the constraints of regular meter and rhyme. Consequently, the speakers of both poems are able to reflect in a stream of consciousness style in order to authentically convey their emotions in regards to the passing of time and the fading of memories. Using free verse, the speakers of “Forgetfulness” and “On Turning Ten” focus on the concept of forgetting, ultimately arguing that remembering would be a much better alternative.

When Frances Cornford wrote “The Watch”, she must have been in an unbelievably dark place; the poem is downright depressing. However, regardless of the macabre nature of the poem, it is executed in supreme fashion, and creates a real sense of dread in the reader. Cornford, a granddaughter of Charles Darwin, was not a particularly popular poet. However, in “The Watch”, she manages to convey a powerful message to the reader, and demonstrates her poetic skill in stride. The theme of this intriguing poem appears to simply be ‘Memento mori’, a reminder to the reader that death is inevitable and inescapable. Cornford conveys this message to the reader using an arsenal of literary devices, most notably the mood, tone, symbolism, and epizeuxis.

In Thomas Gunn’s “Memory Unsettled”, the main speaker visits a dying friend in a hospital bed. The poem is delivered in second person which indicates the reader will be pushed to feel personally involved with the poet’s characters. By stating “Your” (76. 1) the poet allows the reader to vividly imagine the pain such character may be feeling. As the visitor intends to comfort his dying friend the reader acknowledges a bittersweet moment, by inferring the “pain” has not “ended” (76. 1-4). By depicting positive characteristics of a legitimate friend through word choice and phrases, as well as using rhyme scheme to show the symbolic meaning of sticking together, the poet establishes a sorrowful yet optimistic mood about dying.

The poem that I have selected for this essay is “Talking to Grief” by Denise Levertov. I chose this poem because it talks about grief. It also talks about the place that grief should have in a person’s life. The poem describes grief, and compares it to a “homeless dog.” It also describes how a dog deserves its own place in the house, instead of living under a porch or being homeless. This poem talks about how a person can be aware that grief is present, but that it is not always acknowledged and accepted. We all experience grief in different ways, and for different reasons. Everyone deals with grief in their own personal way. This poem describes a point in a person’s life when they are ready to accept grief as a part of their life

I imagine the people reading “For Whom the Bell Tolls” would be surprised by the realistic presentation of the Spanish Civil War. Due to a lack of documents about this war, people reading this story would be shocked by pretty much the first piece of literature about one deadly war that is overlooked quite a bit.