Compare and Contrast the ways in which Christina Rossetti communicates her attitudes towards death in “Song” and “Remember” ________________________________________________________________ In both “Song” and “Remember”, Rossetti conveys her own attitudes towards death through writing about how others should treat her death and how she wants to be remembered, respectively. She addresses important ideas as well as using word choice and the metrical template to paint a clear picture of her perceptions of death. As a poet, Rossetti uses her choice and form of words as a way of conveying her initial feelings towards death. In “Song” the tone is immediately set by the ingenuous and candid first line, “When I am dead my dearest”. It …show more content…
However, it could be interpreted that here, Rossetti is again playing with the idea of guilt, and that she puts on this apathy in order to leave her partner in limbo to whether to forget or remember her. Perhaps this is her ploy to make him feel the guilt of trying to control her and through doing so, he will realise his wrongs, and thus been controlled by her, which you could argue as being her object, as the ultimate form of revenge. Rossetti also addresses the idea of religion in both “Song” and “Remember” which broadens her portrayal of her attitudes towards death. In “Song”, as already discussed, Rossetti rejects convention in her pragmatic approach to death, but also consciously rebuffs the traditional religious views of the time. There is no sense of celestial bliss or heaven in her mention of what death will be like, with no mention of a desire for a ceremony. She deliberately talks of her partner being “the green grass above me”, which shows that she has no belief of her dead body ascending into a divine afterlife, but rather staying firmly buried under the ground. Rossetti thus rejects the Pre-Raphaelites’ Anglican moral influences by her subversive reference to the afterlife. She writes of how she will be “dreaming through the twilight”, and given our
In the two sonnets, “Remember” by Christina Rossetti and “The Cross of Snow” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the authors address death and remembrance indicating similarities when exploring grieving process but also demonstrate its differences through literary techniques. They both utilized symbolism, imagery, and metaphorical language but showed differences in tone.
In the first stanza of “Remember”, Rossetti allows the reader to explore the narrator’s thought about death. When she writes “……Gone far away into the silent land;/ When you can no more hold me by the hand….” the narrator believes that death is final because that connection cannot ever be re-established regardless of how much one wants it. The “silent land” and “gone away” are metaphors for death, and when the narrator says that no one will be able to “hold me (her) by the hand”, this symbolises the one thing death takes, the physical presence of the person. Likewise, Auden’s “Stop all of the Clocks”, explores death with imperatives. Auden writes “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,/ Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,/ Silence the pianos and with muffled drum/Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.” Because the narrator wants life to cease, because with the death of their loved one, there is no purpose in life and it simply cannot (……..) .
As people near the time of their deaths, they begin to reflect upon the history and events of their own lives. Both John Keats’ “When I have Fears” and Henry Longfellow’s “Mezzo Cammin” reflect upon the speakers’ fears and thoughts of death. However, the conclusions between these two poems end quite differently. Although both reflect upon Death’s grasp, Keats’ displays an appreciation and subtle satisfaction with the wonders of life, while Longfellow morbidly mourns his past inactions and fears what events the future may bring.
Rossetti, in the above lines, presents her self before her god with an openness of character and strength of faith. She pleads to be judged and her surrender to His will accepted. Like a typical mystic, she surrenders her self before the larger Self and requests submergence into that. She found her refuge in God only. According to C M Bowra, “only in God could she find a finally satisfying object for the abounding love which was the
Both Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Dirge Without Music” and Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” are poems that discuss the emotional repercussions of death and dying. Grieving the loss of a loved one can be an extremely excruciating experience. At times one may feel suffocated by the sorrow and are desperate for a way to find relief from these intense emotions that are apparent in the grieving process. This is where works of literature can be therapeutic when dealing with difficult emotions. Poetry can be extremely helpful in this sense as one of its purposes is to emphasize certain feelings, ones that we feel but are not sure how to process. It can bring to life what we wish we could do or say, but are not able to. By cross-referencing
Death has captured the mind very early on and since then it has driven us to create some of the most powerful images in the world. In this essay I am going to discuss why art often symbolizes death and some of the complex ways in which art represents death.
The threat of death often moves one to fulfill their life, and can inspire poetry. This theme of a joyous life before death is seen in both the poem “Death” by Rainer Maria Rilke and the song “We Might Be Dead Tomorrow” by Soko. Although these two pieces follow the same theme, they are widely different in how they include poetic devices in the piece. Song and poetry are viewed differently considering that a song often focuses on the music behind the lyrics more than the lyrics themselves, whereas a poem is focused on using words and poetic devices to fulfill its purpose and theme. Claire Dederer, a writer from the Poetry Foundation, suggests that “Song lyrics do a fine imitation of poetry, but they’re not quite the same thing. Lyrics are a
Since the beginning of time, people have many different ways of going about the idea of death and what the afterlife may hold for them, whether they’ll be reunited with family and friends or if they’ll be reincarnated or, maybe nothing at all. This is true for writers, poets and artists. William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”, Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind” and Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” they all center their idea death, but approach it differently and conveys their points differently. One glorifies death, one says life is meaningless and the other glorifies life.
This is a writing that tries to analyse the theme of death, which is portrayed among these poems.
Since its earliest days, mankind has unceasingly pondered mortality and the frailty of human life. Death has often been regarded as a mysterious and inevitable force of nature. As such, the idea of death is a recurring theme throughout the periods of historical art.
Cancer patients and the elderly can never estimate the exact date and time death will come for them. Even when people prepare themselves for it, each individual's reaction to it will still vary. The use of either song or dance by Angels are presented in both poems to show how Angels welcome those crossing over, but the characters contrasts regarding their response to death when it presents itself. The tone in "She Forgot" contrasts the tone in “I Was Sung into This World”. Overall, it becomes very clear that the two individuals in both poems have very different attitudes towards
Poetic form used correctly can be an effective tool for giving the reader the desired feel or impression of a piece. Poet’s e. e. cummings, John Dryden, Dudley Randall and Dylan Tomas all effectively discuss the topic of death. Even though these poets use different forms and treatments to discuss this topic, some congruity between their pieces exists. The different forms used by these authors are open, neoclassic couplet, ballad, and villanelle. e. e. cummings uses the open form in “Buffalo Bill’s Defunct.”
Within the four pieces of literature, the theme is different people have contrastive opinions and reactions when it comes to loss. In Ed Sheeran’s “Supermarket Flowers”, a tribute to his deceased grandmother, he uses a metaphor to compare his grandmother to an angel in the line, “You were an angel in the shape of my mum”. He describes from his mother’s point of view how his grandmother was this angelic person by comparing her to an angel. By comparing her to an angel, Sheeran tells the audience how his grandmother always belonged in heaven. Sheeran uses this device to show the extent of his grandmother’s kind personality and that he’s glad that she can rest in peace in heaven.
What comes to mind upon hearing the word death? “Wanting To Die” by Anne Sexton is a poem is confessional poetry, which describes the obsession of death due to the stress and depress on life of the author. [Create a more engaging/imaginative opening] Besides that, back to those years, confessional poetry is always the announcement of the death of poets who want to end up their life due to unhappiness, loneliness or depression like Anne Sexton. Anne Sexton draws a picture of her life with full of loneliness, unhappiness and confusions that had led her to the thought of death as the only way to be free from her depressing life which is foreseeable in her poems at her crisis time, such as “Wanting to die”. She provides many different reasons on why she wanted to end her own life, even though her own life had so much to offer and she had her own family.
Comparing Christina Rosetti's Approach to the Subject of Death in After Death, Remember, Song and Dream