The poem “Dirge” by Kenneth Fearing is an ode to a man who lives and dies unfulfilled by his choices and the boring routine of life. The man seemingly argues that his demise is unfair because he did what society expected of him. He worked as an “executive type” (5), played the stock market, and gambled at the “track at Bowie” often (4). Even after continually losing, he still “wore one grey, tweed suit” and “drank one straight scotch” daily (19-20). These images build a picture of this man. But the man, a businessman, represents an entire class of lonely, hopeless middle and upper class working people who were destroyed when the material life they led went away. While the poem was written in the midst of the Great Depression, its message …show more content…
The use of rhetorical questions like “who the hell ” and “why the hell” show that the executive barely knows the people carrying his deceased body and they barely know him (28-29). The repeated use of the word “hell” suggests that the man’s life was actually hell to live. The “who the hell” attitude of the casket carriers is similar to the attitude the man had about life (27). Perhaps if he were not stuck in his daily routine, he would have people who genuinely cared for him in the end. It is also interesting that people at these places do not remember him. Only the organizations do. This connects to a larger idea that there are no other real people in the poem besides the man. Just large institutions like banks, companies, and symbols of power like Roosevelt or the blank masks of the casket …show more content…
This poem seems like it means more, but it reveals less and less meaning in the man’s life and death. The reader wants his life to have meaning or a lesson, but it does not. The poem does not give us the satisfaction of a conclusion that gives the man’s life real meaning. It just sputters out, and blabs empty words. The poem continually means less the further it goes and after his death. It just becomes emptier and emptier like the man’s life. The reader expects that the ending would have a serious discussion of what the man’s life meant, but there is nothing. Usually, there is some final line in most poems that gives the reader closure and drives us to the ending. Instead, we have words that do not mean anything and get in the way like “pow, awk, and bop” (34-35). “Big dipper” and “summer rain” sound like song lyrics but they are given no meaning or context (34-35). The last line repeats the word “bong” that sounds like a ring of church bells to signify his death (36). Even in end, the man gets no name as the bell
The first stanza appears to have a rhyme scheme in which the second and fourth lines rhyme. However, this rhyme scheme is not perfect as the remaining stanzas do not follow this pattern. As death is personified throughout the entire poem, lines 2 and 3 introduce him as a kind gentleman that has come the take the speaker for an enjoyable carriage ride. The second stanza shows their courtesy to one another by his patient towards her as he “slowly drove-He knew no haste”, and her giving up her “labor and..leisure too” to join him for a ride.
In the first part of the poem the writer shows the difficulty he is having with taking a human life. In the second stanza he says “Making night work for us the starlight scope bringing men into killing range. This dark tone helps to emphasize the struggle the author is feeling as a soldier in war. Also he shows his emotions directly. In stanza 3 he says “The river under Vi Bridge takes the heart away”. This quote shows the feeling that the author gets
In the final stanza, he makes the reader sad as he assumes the inevitable will happen and she will die. He expresses this through metaphors such as a “black figure in her white cave”, which is a reference to the bright white hospital rooms and although he is the black figure he thinks she just sees a shadow which could be the grim reaper or even death himself, coming to end her journey. No one wants to deal with the sorrow of losing a loved one for good, as
I think these key images all tie in together. All of these memories and past experiences say that he has previously been a very emotional person because of the things he has gone through. In the beginning I was feeling it was dark and mysterious, but as I continued to read it, it became clear of what he was trying to say and express parts of his life. These lines are what define the real meaning of the poem. These lines have real meanings and memories behind them and you can tell that just by simply reading it a few times, and thinking about the thoughts he had expressed in the poem.
This poem has a true meaning behind it. The meaning of it is of Antwone when he was little. He would cry himself to sleep. He would get beaten over an over again. It just kept building up and finally he cried for help on the inside. Luckily he got help from his psychiatrist before it was too late.
The last two lines act as a slap in the face. Every element works toward death, and the speaker almost slips into eternal rest. One can see him, putting the
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
The Poem begins with a personification of death as "kindly" (3). By doing this, the speaker introduces a portrayal on death that might have conflictions. Most of the times, death has a negative connotation. Whether it is an inevitable or tragic view, it opposes to what is seen in the poem. The speaker accepts death as a friendly invitation when the time is right, rather than something that is bound to happen. The speaker then joins immortality, personified as a passenger in a carriage. Immortality simply cannot be a passenger as it is a non-living thing. The reasoning for this could be that immortality ties together the link between the speaker and death, ultimately introducing the voyage to come. The first stanza sets a precedent of a meter to follow throughout most of the poem. The first line contains eight
Another image that Whitman gives his readers in the poem is that of a handkerchief; we think of two things; drying weeping eyes and initials. During those times, not however as common a practice now, people would carry a handkerchief with them in case of the out cries of a woman. Along with tears, we are forced to think about why people cry? This develops thoughts about people that are loved being torn away, like in death. As you look at a handkerchief, it is often times easy to identify who it belongs to by the initials that appear on the cloth. This is a way to remember those that have died and keep them with you always. I think that this is a major idea of the poem, although someone no longer walks the face of the earth this does not mean that they are no longer with us, because they are in spirit and memory.
Repetition at the end of each stanza is effectively used to reinforce the message to fight back against death. The son implores his father to hang on any way he can and begs him to use joy or tears or anger to remain in this life. Other men, be they wise or frivolous, serious or
People would not want to hear that their loved ones merely gave up and died passively. This poem in itself is a celebration of life, the poem is not only about death but it is an affirmation of life. To further emphasise the points being made Dylan Thomas utilises a wide range of literary devices. Parallelism is used from lines seven to fifteen to juxtapose the different attitudes of the so called “genres” of men at their death. This is used to outline that if you continuously lead one set type of lifestyle whether it is as a “wild man”, a “grave man” or a “good man” you will not be satisfied when your time comes to die. The only true way to be satisfied is to live a life of balance; only with a good contrast can you be at peace.
The poem begins by the father first giving his son a very formal goodbye and explains the relationship between the two. Though it initially does not seem to be that deep, it later demonstrates the connection as he says “child of my right hand, and joy” showing the happiness the child brings his as well as how he is dependable or always right there. In the next line, he goes on to explain his sin which plays into the guilt aspect of this piece. He fears that his trouble was having too high of expectations for his first born, thus not giving the child enough faith that what he was doing was also acceptable. Perhaps the father is feeling that he did not give his child enough reassurance while he had the chance. The next line is key to the poem and tells us the age of his son when he died, telling us that he was seven year old, while the second part is saying that he is paying for his childs death.
As the poem goes on it gets deeper with meaning, sadder even. Lines four and five are the most crucial lines of the poem. Line three ends with the head giving the heart advice. “You will lose the ones you love. They will all go,” this isn’t the first thing someone wants to hear, especially not someone who is aware that they have just lost someone they love. But this is classic, logical advice that your emotions need to hear. What it means is that one day everyone you love will be gone, it is the sad truth of the world we live in. Nothing is forever. “But even the earth will go,
The poem Let Me Die A Young Man’s Death has a very euphonious sound that leads to a more relaxed tone. This also plays in to create a humorous tone even though the topic is about death. The speaker also uses very intense words and phrases that have a heavy emotional value to them such as cut me up, and tumor. Although he uses language like that he also mixes it in with words that often have a positive or humorous connection like all-night party. This mixture of positive and negative leads the reader to feel a strange concoction of emotions. The tone of the poem is mostly depressing, due to the use of very heavy language, and constant mention of death. Occasionally, the tone is humorous due to references to deaths that are often featured in comedy shows or movies.
These feelings or abundance and well-being, according to Mark Bracher, make it quite simple for the reader to look at death calmly and accept their own mortality as consequence of a rich and fulfilling life (Bracher 1990, 634). Bracher accuses the poem of pretence