Gerontion By Frank Bidart Analysis

Intro: In the poems Frank Bidart’s “If See No End Is” and T.S. Eliot’s “Gerontion” there are plenty of comparable aspects of each poem. In Bidart’s poem “If See No End Is” is about a young kid in sixth grade who is somber in tone that is worried about his future, told in a hopeless tone that seems to make the future seem like nothingness. In T.S. Eliot’s poem “Gerontion” the plot of the poem I a little different because the story is about a very old gentleman who talks about how miserable his life is being so old. These two different points of view touch on many of the same ideas that makes them very comparable texts to one another. In the poems Frank Bidart “If See No End Is” and T.S. Eliot’ “Gerontion” there are many similarities between the play such as the emotional curve of the poem, the subject matter, and the overall tone of the poem.

Poetry can sometimes allow one to explore the unknown. However, in some works of poetry, one can realise that some known ideas or values remain relevant to current society. This is certainly applicable to T.S. Eliot’s poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Rhapsody on a Windy Night. Eliot’s manipulation of poetic techniques in both these poems allows the responder to realise that some ideas prevail in both modern and post-modern society. These poems explore the unknown phenomena of the obscurity regarding the purpose and meaning of life. This unknown phenomena causes the persona in both texts to resort to a sense of isolation or alienation. Eliot uses poetic techniques such as metaphors and personification to convey his ideas.

Two poems that can be compared to each other are “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.” These poems both seem to share the theme of life coming to a close. In the poem “To the Virgins”, there is a line that reads “The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, the higher he’s a-getting, The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he’s to setting”; this creates an image of a soul ascending to heaven. “Do Not Go Gentle” conveys a similar image in the fourth stanza; as the souls go to heaven, they are welcomed by the sun’s rays. However, the poems also seem to share different meanings. The overall message of “To the Virgins” is that people should make the most of life because it will not last long. This is evidenced

Robert Frost and Sylvia Plath, the authors of After Apple-Picking and Mirror, share some similarities in their work. Both narrators in each poem reflect on aspects of their life and their significance of the “end” of their time. They contrast in their style of writing and their thought process for example, Frost takes an approach of himself as being a bit delirious due to the drowsiness and the drink he had while Plath takes a direct approach and speaks of herself as a silver old woman who is reminiscing on the pink and youthful woman she once was.

The two poems are similar in their corresponding feeling of dread for death. Using diction,

Another similarity can be found in both of the poems due to their mutual usage of the same Greek myth, which is about Icarus. The Dictionary of Classical Mythology details the myth of Icarus as follows, “At first all went well as they flew out over the sea, but then Icarus was fatally

The similarities in the poem deal with similar topics expressed throughout the poem dealing with Keats’ and Longfellow’s fear of death. Differences between the two include the structure and the different images, metaphors and diction that they give off along with their different train of thoughts while writing the two poems. Their thoughts of the subject of death are able to relate to a variety of people because everyone is just human and cannot last forever. Just as these two poems show similar ideas can branch off into many different ideas and interpretations. The desire to continue to

The theme of Dylan Thomas and W.B Yeats poems are about death. In Do Not Go “Gentle Into The Good Night” the author is telling his father not to die and to stay strong. He does this by repeating ”Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” In ” When You Are Old “The narrator said” And pace upon the mountain overhead And his face amid a crowd of stars.” The narrator is looking down on her from when he passed away.

Despite being these poems being written nearly thirty years apart, there are many similarities in the two works. Each poem makes use of a tone in which the narrator ponders death in a way that does not seem afraid or bitter. In "I Have a Rendezvous With Death," the narrator considers life in a peaceful manner. He does not worry about his rendezvous with death; he welcomes it. Similarly, in "Night Funeral in Harlem," the narrator does not fear death.

This is expressed by the multiple examples of old men whom regret certain aspects of their lives and defy death even when they know their time is up. The speaker is urging his father to fight against old age and death. The meaning and subject of the poem influence the tone and mood. The tone is one of frustration and insistence. Thomas is slightly angry and demanding. His words are not a request, they are an order. The mood of the poem is is serious and solemn due to the poem focusing mainly on the issue of death. This mood and tone is created by words such as “burn”(2), “Grieved”(11) and “rage”(3) along with phrases such as “crying how bright”(7), “forked no lightning”(5), “near death”(13) and “fierce tears”(17). The insistent feeling is also created by the repetition of the lines “Do not go gentle into that good night”(1), and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”(3). The figurative language used also affect how the meaning, tone and mood are interpreted.

There are similarities in these two poems such as the theme and the observentness of the narrator. Both of the poems themes involve death. In ?I heard a Fly buzz when I died?, the poet writes, ? And then the Windows failed ? and then I could not see to see- ", which means that the narrator?s eyes would not open no more; they had died. In ?Because I could not stop for Death? it shows the theme

Message of Hope in Eliot's The Waste Land, Gerontion, and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The end of The Hollow Men can only be the beginning of a deep and long reflection for thoughtful readers. T.S. Eliot, who always believed that in his end is his beginning, died and left his verse full of hidden messages to be understood, and codes to be deciphered. It is this complexity, which is at the heart of modernism as a literary movement, that makes of Eliot’s poetry very typically modernist. As Ezra Pound once famously stated, Eliot truly did “modernize himself”. Although his poetry was subject to important transformations over the course of his

The Structure, style and poetic techniques of a poem contribute greatly to the development of the central idea of a poem. Three poems with central ideas that stood out to me were ‘The Darkling Thrush’ by Thomas Hardy, ‘Days’ by Philip Larkin, and ‘Remembrance’ by Emily Brontë. The central idea of each of these poems revolve around the idea of time and change. Firstly, I will discuss how in ‘The Darkling Thrush’ the simple and traditional structure, the bleak yet straightforward style and techniques such as vivid imagery and capitalisation combine to develop the central idea of change. The same can be said for the simple structure and style used in ‘Days’ which combine with poetic techniques such as metaphors to develop Larkin’s argument against time and change. Finally I will discuss how the idea of time is developed through techniques such as vivid imagery and symbolism in ‘Remembrance’ along with changing styles and a slow, consistent rhythm.