Literary Analysis : ' Elegy '

The idea of graves representing memory is introduced in Part I of the collection within the poem “Graveyard Blues”. The final stanza of the poem says, “I wander now among the names of the dead: My mother’s name, stone pillow for my head” (8). First, while the word grave does not appear within this line, it is heavily implied by the speaker using her mother’s name as a stone pillow. The reader can deduce that this line is referring to a gravestone as when one thinks of a gravestone they usually picture an upright slab of rock with the name of the deceased engraved within it, and both of these elements are emphasized within this line. The main way that this line alludes to personal

Conventional wisdom has it that racism is subsiding, but in fact, racism has increased. Danez Smith writes not an elegy for Mike Brown, as a response to the murder of an African American boy, unarmed, shot by a white police officer. The poem compares black life value to white life value. Smith ties racism to militarism by referencing the Trojan War and demands the same consequences brought upon by white death for black death. Desperately and mournfully, Danez Smith exposes the difference in the value humanity places on White lives in comparison to Black lives.

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.

Power and control plays a big role in the lives many. When power is used as a form of control, it leads to depression and misery in the relationship. This is proven through the themes and symbolism used in the stories Lesson before Dying, The fun they had, The strangers that came to town, and Dolls house through the median of three major unsuccessful relationship: racial tension between the African Americans and the caucasians in the novel Lesson before Dying, Doll’s House demonstrates a controlling relationship can be detrimental for both individuals and The Stranger That Came To Town along with The Fun They Had show that when an individual is suppressed by majority they become despondent.

In past years, as well as, in the twenty-first century, African Americans are being oppressed and judged based on the color of their skin. In, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, this is the primary conflict that plagues Jefferson’s as well as Grant’s everyday life. By pleading guilty to a murder that he did not commit, Jefferson has to choose to die just as he is, a hog in the white’s eyes, or die a man. On the other hand, Grant, who is his teacher, is faced with being looked down upon by his community all because of his race and status. He is graced with the challenge of turning Jefferson into a man before his execution date. It is only a matter of time before they both realize that they cannot change the past and they have

To begin, the speaker of the poem “Thou famished grave” presents a resentful and aggressive attitude towards death. The poem, addressed to a “ famished grave” (1), personifies a grave as a starving beast that can “roar” (2), “gnaw” (3), and has “dismal jaws” (7). This represents death in a negative way because the description of the beast make it seem unpleasant and to be feared. Furthermore, the poem includes words and phrases when addressing the grave that follow the theme of starvation, such as, “famished grave” (1), “Gnaw thine own sides, fast on” (3), and “I cannot starve thee out: I am thy prey” which emphasizes that the beast of death is starving to take someone’s life. This animal-like aggressiveness adds to the already negative image of the beast. This imagery also shows how the speakers thinks of death since it comes from her words which shows that she sees death in a very negative way. Due to this, the speaker is angry and does not want to give death what it wants, which is to take someone’s life. Additionally, although death is something normally feared, the speaker shows that she is not fearful by saying “I have no fear / of thy dark project” (3-4) when speaking to the grave. She expresses that she does not want to die and her “heart is set / On living” (4-5), which explains her resentfulness towards death. She also understands that death is inevitable as she says, “I cannot starve thee out: I am thy prey / And thou shalt have me; but I dare defend / That I can stave thee off” (6-8). This shows that even though she knows that she will one day die, she still doesn’t want to give death what it wants and will fight as long as she can

In the poem beach burial Slessor writes with soft elusive words in a solemn, muted tone of quiet. He uses long descriptive sentences that are heavy and slow like the lifeless bodies that Slessor describes … no rhyming gives it a cheerful or light-hearted quality and no abrupt sentences give any false impressions of life.

The book, As I Lay Dying, written by William Faulkner, tells a story of how a mother named Addie died and now the children of the family are coping with the loss of their mother and then setting off to a journey for her burial located in Jefferson. Throughout the story, each character has their way of coping with loss and by doing so, reveals more and more about themselves. Thus, there are many elements in the story that express unconscious desires or inner feelings of characters that show the psychoanalytic viewpoint in the story.

In William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesmen” there is Notable themes of gender role and gender identity. Faulkner’s Character Anse is Comparatively Similar but also Contrastingly different in the roles they both convey as head of their households, In their families and in society. Both Families can also be analyzed by their time period in which each piece of fictional literature took place. Faulkner’s novel “As I Lay Dying” was written in 1930 while Miller’s play was written in 1949.

This poem is written in ballad form which is odd because one would think of a ballad and think a love story or an author gushing on about nature not an allegory about personified Death. Dickinson both unites and contrasts love/courtship with death, experimenting with both reader’s expectations and the poetic convention dictating specific poem form. This is why Dickinson is widely hailed because of her unconventional writing methods.

In the poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, by Emily Dickinson and “Home Burial”, by Robert Frost, literary elements are used throughout both poems to get the message the authors are trying to portray. One main important literary element that is used to entice the reader, is symbolism, because it helps the authors describe something without actual describing it. Symbolism is also used because it shows how significant an object is. Characterization is also an important literary technique because it, gives the reader an idea on how the character would act, work, and their values in life. Death is a topic that is used in both poems. Also, every character express their opinion about death differently.

Well, in Elegy by Thomas Gray, he wonders about his death, wonders if his elegy will be remembered and if we knew when we were going to die would we write something nice about ourselves. The three message are talking about death and what you do when you know when you die and what you would say about yourself. In this he talks about how he wants people to remember him and if people will remember his epitaph the way he wrote it. They also talk about what you would say about yourself if you knew exactly when you were going to

Poems are like snowflakes. While no two are the same, they all have common structures and themes. One prevalent theme in poetry is that of death, which is present in both “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. Dickinson perceives death as a gentleman, while Frost perceives death as loneliness, which provides insight on how the time periods of the poems, the genders of the authors, and the authors’ personal experiences influence literature.

The elegy is written in free verse; it does not rhyme or have any regular meter, not employing a consistent pattern. The poem has no structure and is free throughout, which emanates Whitman’s attitude throughout the elegy: the embracement of death. One technique he uses the most is repeating the word “O”, for an example:

Poetry is an art form that has often been highly regarded. It brings together some of the most complex forms of writing in the English language. Two poems that focus on the same topic may sometimes, have completely different views and provide perspectives that may not have been considered by the other. Two of these Poems are Let Me Die A Youngman’s Death by Roger McGough and On Death by Anne Killigrew. The former poem by Roger McGough talks of how the speaker does not wish to die the peaceful death of an elderly person but rather the chaotic death of a young man. In death is nothing at all the speaker proposes that all should be as happy as before his death, and not view it in such a negative and secretive light.