Dealing In The Poem By W. H. Auden

“The Bustle in a House” by Emily Dickinson (653) is a poem that uses the death of a loved one and turns it into how the domestic duties must go on and utilizes that as a source to cope with the grief caused by the depressing situation. Similarly, “Funeral Blues” by W.H. Auden (762-763) is also a poem about death in which is told in a man’s perspective who is mourning the loss of a lover who has died. Although “The Bustle in a House” and “Funeral Blues” share death as the comparable theme, both poets go about it in separate ways. Both poems utilize the same sound devices to create imagery, however “Funeral Blues” usage of structure, syntax, and symbolism is demonstrated more effectively in order to convey the way the speaker processes death.

Auden’s life is forever changed, since the death of his beloved brother. In this poem, W.H Auden expresses his emotions of depression after the loss of a loved one, and how nothing brings him happiness anymore. He uses alliteration, imagery, and metaphors to emphasize the sorrows he feels everyday, and will feel for the rest of his life. Auden uses alliteration to highlight the fact that he wants everyone to mourn the loss of his brother along with him, imagery to get the readers to visualize the irritation he has that his brother didn’t get the proper funeral he deserves, and uses a metaphor to help the reader identify the concept that his brother meant everything to him

Death is a spiritual experience that is flush with taboo connotations. When a loved one leaves this life for the after there are tears and grieving. This occurrence has been used countless times throughout history to commemorate the passing of a loved one, this makes it difficult to produce a piece of poetry that discussed death in a way it has not been discussed before. In The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse poem 67 which will be referred to as “The blackbird calls in grief”, poem 108 which will be referred to as “There are three ways to await death”, and All That is Left…by Michael Hartnett discuss this taboo topic in new and interesting ways. These poems are distinct because of the way that the author represents death. These poems are related and similar while being vastly different.

The first stanza introduces the speaker’s earliest memory as they are starting the journey of crossing over. Right away the reader is introduced to a fly buzzing around the room, “I heard a Fly buzz- when I died-“(1). The fly represents the soul leaving the body and witnessing the surroundings of the life they are leaving behind. The speaker is aware that the people around have crying and Dickinson illustrating the scene with a metaphor, “Was like the Stillness in the Air- Between the Heaves of Storm-“ (3-4). The speaker realizes that the family members who have come to mourn have not made any sounds during the periods of wailing and quietly sniffling. Dickinson’s comparison to a storm that changes sound constantly it perfectly displays how people mourn. First loudly, then quietly before the wails rise again.

Death is the concern in of both Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into That Goodnight,” and Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. Moreover, while these two poets use similar themes in their works, the execution and tone of their respective pieces could not be more antithetical. More to the point, Thomas’ poem paints death and oblivion as something deserving of fear and dread, and even though dying is an immutable fact in our world, man will always feel the need to have, “Rage, Rage against the dying of the light”. However, Dickinson does not let the fear of death consume her, so much so, that in her poem she embraces death as nothing less than a gentleman, who in her own words “kindly stopped for me”. At the end of it all, Dylan Thomas’ poem is a loud boisterous proclamation about the desperation of man to hold on to life and to leave something behind but ultimately realizing they cannot, while Dickinson’s is a quiet reflection about the cyclical nature of life and death and the peace the end brings.

While the poem speaks of death, the tone is very subtle and joyful because of the multiple imageries of nature through diction such as “bird,” “garden,” and “water.”

the reader of the enormous loss of life, but at the end of the poem

Both of these poems talk of how death can greatly affect its victims. The mood of these two is to not give up on your will to live. They two narrators feel as if they have lost all hope in either their father or the wars strong grip on stealing lives away from them. Death is a very serious topic that Cecil L. Harrison is very affectionate about.

Moreover, Auden uses several techniques in “Funeral Blues,” including a simple aa, bb rhyme scheme and a plethora of hyperboles. The rhyme scheme is effective because it makes the poem flow smoothly. This makes the poem seem to “pass by” the reader, much like the rest of life passes by someone who is still feeling the hurt of experiencing death. The hyperboles help to signify exactly how much the lost loved one means to the poet. An example can be seen in the lines, “Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead/Scribbling on the sky He Is Dead” (5-6). Obviously the entire world is not too concerned with the death of one person, but it is apparent the poet feels that the rest of the world must be put on hold

and "dying" are used to show that even though the speaker is hurt by his death and wishes he had not died, the speaker is also happy at the same time because his suffering in the real world has ended and is finally over. These words allow the reader to envisage this in their minds and understand how the speaker feels. On the final line of the first stanza, terms such as "Cease", "Nature" and "life" are utilized. "Cease" means to stop, when the reader looks at this term, they imagine that something has stopped, then when the reader reads on, the idioms "Nature" and "life" are read. This allows the reader to visualize that a life has stopped and that nature no longer has a grasp of this life anymore.

Starting off his poem with an excerpt from “Urn Burial” by Sir Thomas Browne (a treatise on the funeral rites of ancient nations), Walcott immediately conveys to the reader a sense of death, misery and destruction. The extinguishing of the light in the excerpt acts as a visual metaphor to death. Just like an urn holds the remains of a person, what is left of the “Great House” holds the ruins and atrocities of British colonialism.

the theme of death. The speaker of the poems talks about the loss of a

He also used distinct diction to support his metaphors to deliver powerful images and messages. The overall purpose of this poem was to inform the readers that they should cherish the moment, instead of expecting the things that will occur in future, because life not eternal and no one can measure the time between life and death. The poet’s intent is clear to relate and to adjust one’s attitude towards the

Death and mortality are common themes widely used throughout poetry and other numerous works of literature. As well as this, death is a common occurrence in life, and though most people refuse to accept or acknowledge it, everyone must deal with it at some point in their lifetime. Whether it be the death of a family member, friend, or the final stages of your own life you will experience death in some way. In the poems, “Death, be not proud” and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” the speakers possess two similar ideas of just what death is. “Death, be not proud” is a poem written by John Donne and maintains a direct approach to the coming of death. “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” is another poem discussing death and mortality, written by Dylan Thomas, and reflects his somewhat more defiant attitude towards death. In both poems, the themes of death and mortality, though constant, are written about in different ways.

In song “The Gathering of the Black Moths” has experienced loss of loved ones that in turn causes him to the loss of hope. Similarly in “7 Hours Late” the lyrics describe the narrator’s loss of his father but also the loss of hope as his father will never return. In “Heartstrings Shattering” the narrator relives the loss of a loved one every time he remembers her. Also in “Room and Shadows” the narrator has lost loved ones and that loss has caused great pain and sorrow for him. As exemplified by these four song lyrics, death circles around the concept of melancholy. As Edgar Allan Poe has stated “of all melancholy topics what, according to the universal understanding of all mankind, is the most melancholy? Death was the obvious reply” (Poe 1846: