Exploring The Theme Of Premature Death In Three Poems
Death in the family is shocking, and it is even more appalling when it is unforeseen and when it takes a child. Three poets have written from personal experience three renowned poems on this theme. Margaret Atwood wrote “Death of a Young Son by Drowning”, Seamus Heaney gave us “Mid-term Break”, and Ben Johnson penned On My First Son. These three poets use the titles, situations, tones, language, structure, and musical devices in their poems to convey to the reader their different reflections about the common theme of grief over the unexpected death of a young loved one.
The title of a poem gives the reader an immediate impression of not only the poem’s subject, but also the speaker’s ...
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not having a “normal” spring break at all, as he is spending it grief-stricken over the death of his four-year old brother. If one examines this title on an interpretive level, the word “break” takes on a new meaning, as it could refer to the death of the child as breaking the heart or spirit of the family and the speaker.
The situations and tones in the poems are very similar, in that all the poems deal with the speaker in the poem expressing deep emotion over the death of their departed loved ones. However, each poem is different in the events that occur and in the attitude they convey. The speaker in Death of a Young Son by Drowning narrates the events of her son’s death as he travels on a voyage of discovery, (3,4) slides into the river, (6, 7) has an accident with his air supply, (16) drowns, (17) is retrieved from the river,(18) and is buried by his mother. (29) In On My First Son, Ben Johnson, the author, addresses his dead son directly, which conveys a great deal of ...
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of hope. The speaker’s tone in On My First Son is likewise very anguished. The speaker is torn apart by his emotions because he can’t understand why he should feel sorrow, since he rationalizes that he should be happy that his son was able to escape the hardships of adult life (5-9). He then comes to the conclusion that he loved his son too much, and that maybe if he had not loved him so much he would not have been hurt so much at his death. The poem ends with the speaker’s hopeless and almost inhuman resolution “All his vows be such / As what he loves he may never like too much” (12). Similarly, Mid-term Break has a tone of sorrow, with the mother sobbing dryly (13), but as the speaker ...
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"Exploring The Theme Of Premature Death In Three Poems." Essayworld.com. September 26, 2007. Accessed November 17, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Exploring-Theme-Premature-Death-Three-Poems/71775.
"Exploring The Theme Of Premature Death In Three Poems." Essayworld.com. September 26, 2007. Accessed November 17, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Exploring-Theme-Premature-Death-Three-Poems/71775.
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