Many people believe that the worst part of remembrance is all the pain that comes with it. But what

The deceased are often remembered in either the best of themselves or the worst. Family and friends usually look back and reminisce on the most striking qualities held by their lost loved ones. Death is a shocking and confusing period for those affected by it and the whirlwind of emotions, such as the various stages of grief, catch many by surprise. Born in 1908, Theodore Roethke was an American poet who was deemed one of the most proficient and leading poets of his generation. In his poem, “Elegy for Jane”, Roethke uses a variety of poetic devices to express the different themes of love, happiness, and grief. His use of imagery, symbolism, persona, tone and word choice, contribute to the deeper meaning of the poem, assisting in the expression of the speaker’s feelings for Jane and of how, Jane, herself felt.

Two of the poems written by Seamus Heaney, “Digging” and “Blackberry Picking”, contain recurring themes while both discussing entirely different scenes. The first poem, “Digging”, talks about Heaney’s memories of hearing his father digging in the potato garden outside the house. The second poem, “Blackberry-Picking”, carries a similar solemn tone, while describing another memory of Heaney’s of his experience with picking blackberries. These poems by Heaney share similar themes of reflection of his past experiences in which he dissects important life lessons from everyday events such as the passage of time and the uncertainty of life.

The word “homecoming” is universally associated with a celebration of the returned and is linked to feelings of happiness and anticipation. Dawe however, employs this word ironically as the “homecoming” described in the poem correlates to the death and mourning of the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War and depicts the arrival of their nameless bodies. Through establishing this irony Dawe is about to effectively capture the brutal reality of war and highlight the emotional trauma associated with its dehumanising

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 (……..) .

During times of war, it is inevitable for loss to be experienced by all. In the poems “The Black Rat” and “The Photograph” written by Iris Clayton and Peter Kocan respectively, the idea of loss is explored through an omniscient narrator recalling a soldier’s involvement in warfare. While Clayton writes of a soldier’s abrupt loss of hope and how this experience negatively affects his life, Kocan explores how the loss of a loved one affects a family sixty years later. While both poems incorporate similar techniques in imagery and narration, the time setting for each poem is different as “The Black Rat” is set in Tobruk, Libya during World War 2 and “The Photograph” is set during World War 1.

A poem which explores the feeling of loss is ‘Visiting Hour’ by Norman MacCaig. In this powerful and moving poem, the writer uses techniques such as imagery, symbolism and word choice to effectively grip the reader and keeps them with him throughout the poem.

The memories and feelings that the memorial brings forth from the veteran are the driving force to the tone of the poem. The poems is heavy and heartbreaking. It clearly shows that the visit to the memorial has an enormous impact on the author. The author describes several different visions he has while at the memorial. The visions that he has are as real to him as if they were physically present. The author makes it easy to see and feel things through his eyes. The words used to describe his thoughts and feeling evoke emotions of sadness and at times, even despair.

The author uses many different poetic tools, such as imagery and structure, to convey the theme of facing memories. In the beginning of the poem the narrator looks over the names of fallen comrades in the stone wall of the Vietnam War Memorial. From the very first lines

Memory is presented as either a way of life or a community of change, as demonstrated in ‘Aspens’, ‘Old Man’, ‘Aldestrop’. He does this through the variety of techniques such as change in form, use of imagery and alternations in the tone of each poem to explore memory. As well as this, Thomas explicates the devastation of emptiness due to the consequence of war, which is portrayed through the use of soft consonantal sounds or the use

The poem “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins describes the effects of growing older, and the loss associated with it. The focus of the poem is the process through which people become forgetful of things that were once important to them, and begin to experience memory loss as they grow old. “Forgetfulness” highlights that memories are delicate, and that the process of growing old and experiencing forgetfulness is a part of life. Memories, rather they be small and seemingly less significant, or larger and important, eventually leave the minds of those growing old. The tone of the poem is lighthearted, but as the poem progresses, Collins shifts to a more solemn tone to express that memories are important

The poem that I have selected for this essay is “Talking to Grief” by Denise Levertov. I chose this poem because it talks about grief. It also talks about the place that grief should have in a person’s life. The poem describes grief, and compares it to a “homeless dog.” It also describes how a dog deserves its own place in the house, instead of living under a porch or being homeless. This poem talks about how a person can be aware that grief is present, but that it is not always acknowledged and accepted. We all experience grief in different ways, and for different reasons. Everyone deals with grief in their own personal way. This poem describes a point in a person’s life when they are ready to accept grief as a part of their life

In “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone” by W.H. Auden the author uses different literary devices to portray the theme of overwhelming grief and loss. In the poem, the speaker is someone who has recently lost a loved one. The person is so distraught that they start issuing harsh demands. The speaker wants everything to stop and all noise to seize. He or she then starts revealing more personal details by telling how much the loved one meant to them. This poem is dramatic and successfully uses literary devices to show how the speaker is feeling in their time of grief. W.H. Auden uses metaphors, personification, and overstatements to reveal the effects of overwhelming grief.

Duffy uses the image, of the “boys”, “kissing photographs from home” along with the repeated lists of either family members, common names, or aspirations in order to create an emotive link between the speaker and reader. Likewise, Owen’s poem examines the affect war has on young men such as himself. Using Hyperbole’s like “all of my dreams” to make the reader compassionate towards the speaker. Owen’s next lines appeal to the reader to reflect on their own experiences by direct address, alliteration, imagery, asking the reader to personally stop telling the lie that are is honorable and noble. Contrastingly, Duffy strongly utilizes repetition to summarize the main theme in her poem. The final two lines are the same as two earlier lines making the reader dwell on why she has made this recurrence. In Duffy’s poem with focuses heavily on the rewinding of time and the changing of history, she repeats this phrase to illustrate the fact that nothing has changed. Both poems are rejections of war propaganda and reflections on how even after the tragedy and sorrow in both poems war are still fought daily and nothing has changed in the

The dark grim reality of war is powerfully addressed throughout Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and Duffy’s ‘War Photographer’. Each poet approaches the subject of suffering, pain and isolation in a different yet unique persona. ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ gives a glimpse into World War I soldiers struggling for survival and the hardship they endured. On the other hand, ‘War Photographer’ reveals the difficulties a war photographer faces in an internal battle between helping metaphorically and physically lost victims, and fulfilling what his job entails.

Seamus Heaney published “Digging” and “Twice Shy” under the same collection of poems from “Death of a Naturalist” in 1966. The story behind “Digging” is about the internal conflict Heaney has with himself and the memories of his father working hard in the potato farm while Heaney works hard at digging into his poetry. “Twice Shy” centers on how a couple communicates their emotions felt from a date that carried meanings. The main theme for “Digging” is about the conflict Heaney has with his identity, while “Twice Shy” focuses on disillusionment between the couple. Heaney seems to struggle with realizing his own potential and qualities for something else other than what he and society thinks he should be. As for “Twice Shy” the couple has experienced the unpleasant romantic situations in the past which lead to hesitancy in a new relationship. The author built the theme of identity in “Digging” and for “Twice Shy” the newfound love of the couples through the use of imagery, rhyme, and mood.