Death as a theme in Modern Poetry1
Death has been and always will be an interesting and compelling topic among poets and authors alike. Death sheds a mysterious vale over life and is often avoided or dreaded within people causing diversity among the reactions of modern poetry and thought. Mortality can be treated as a crisis, a destination, with significance or without, as well as (sadly) by some as a goal. Death provides a wide spectrum of ideas that can be expanded upon with dignity or as a magnanimous ideal. The poets that I have read and pondered deliver an array of insight on the topic; from its grotesqueness to its humbleness. They approach or meditate upon death with disgust as well as with nonchalance. Overall I think that although the poets each dissect and interpret our inevitable encounter in variation they all would agree in its mystery and finality. To live, especially with comfort and respect, can often be, and is usually, a difficult as well as unavoidable task. Dying can be viewed in much the same way. Although you sometimes have a choice, often death is sudden and miserable and can end a life with little or no grace. I think Randall Jarrell would agree with me on this point. In his poem "The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner" Jarrell ex
This is one more way in which death is looked at. "We are poor passing facts" according to Robert Lowell. To "wake" is probably synonymous with "to live" and "to sleep" is probably related to "to die. Any death related to the destruction of this city would show how a person's death is not up to himself or herself but that it is decided by fate. This frightened man who "fell into the State" straight from his "mother's sleep" was possibly given a hero's burial but at the same time his carcass remains were "hosed" out of the turret. " In this poem Thomas realizes that death is imminent but he still does not appease it by sacrificing the routines of his life to try and completely avoid dying. On a normal afternoon a man drowns. " The idea of somebody washing the flesh and guts of a recently deceased person portrays how pathetic the finality of one's live can be. Another poet backs up this notion in an indirect and possibly even unintentional (but probably intended) manner. " If you take your waking slow I would think you would live longer. "When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. " The phrase, "I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow" is repeated several times throughout the poem.
Common topics in this essay:
Dylan Thomas,
,
Theodore Roethke,
Grave People,
Gunner Jarrell,
Stevie Smith,
Gentle Night,
Jarrell Rosenberg,
Man's Dump,
Robert Lowell,
saying live,
signed paper,
hand signed paper,
hand signed,
waking slow,
night poem,
live consideration,
poets read,
dylan thomas,
gentle night,
gentle night poem,
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Acceptance Essays
