A Comparison of Langston Hughes' End and Cristina Rossetti's Uphill
A Comparison of Langston Hughes' End and Cristina Rossetti's UphillThe two poems, End and Uphill, by Langston Hughes and Cristina Rossetti respectively, have a common theme: death. However, the overall message of the poems is very different, as two distinct perspectives on death and its meaning unfold. Thus, Hughes' poem describes death as an absolute final destination, as the title also indicates. The brief but effective title, "End", suggests an ultimate state of nothingness, from which there is no respite. The poem's form is also very significant: the text is formed exclusively of negations instead of assertions. The images constructed in the poem are all negated: there are no clocks on the wall, there is no time, there are no shadows, there is neither light nor darkness and there is no door. These negated enumerations are symbolic: the absence of clocks and of time and the disappearance of light and darkness point to the abolishment of the indispensible principles of life and existence. The imagery of absolute nothingness culminates with the last
The form and the punctuation of the poem are again significant: the author constructs her poem of a series of brief and succinct questions and answers. exclamation of the poem, which suggests that this state of non-existence is also final and inescapable. The series of questions suggest that the traveler doubts that death will actually be followed by life. Moreover, the poem is an allegory, picturing a traveler who has to take the road 'uphill' and who hopes to find an inn at the end of his travel, for shelter and rest. Rossetti's Uphill, on the other hand, speaks of death in different terms. Thus, the two poems analyzed, Hughes' End and Rossetti's Uphill both give an image of death and its significance: for Hughes, death is the ultimate state of total absence and negation while for Rossetti death is the final step towards eternal peace and beatitude offered by heaven. The absence of the door therefore indicates a closure, an absolute end which leaves not possibility for escape. As it can be seen, Rossetti's poem delivers a very different image of death: death is not an ultimate state but an event that, although it elicits awe and doubt, is only a step towards the long sought-for eternal peace. Unlike Hughes' description of death as an ending or an absolute state of non-existence, Rossetti pictures life as a journey towards heaven and death as the last step to be taken in order to reach it. The negations in the poem serve to erase all the signs of life from this ultimate state, while the last image suggests that death is an ending and not a step and that it offers no possibility for continuation. The form already hints at a mystical and theological tradition in which an apprentice inquires a master on fundamental questions of existence. For instance, in the second stanza, the anxiety of the traveler is easily perceived as he wanders whether, because of the darkness, he will miss the inn and pass it by without stopping. The title of the poem is extremely significant in this sense as it further enhances the contrast with Hughes' text: "uphill" effectively designates an upward trajectory and a final destination at the peak of the road. The inn at the top of the hill is the heaven that offers rest and absolute peace to the mortal man.
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Cristina Rossetti,
Unlike Hughes',
rossetti's uphill,
death ultimate,
image death,
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rossetti's poem,
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Acceptance Essays
