The Different Aspects Of Life And Death English Literature Essay
In our being, we are inexorably intertwined with different facets of life: from cloud nine and love to trouble and decease. While all facets of life can be experienced and expressed by us, decease can non be ; nevertheless, we can be certain that decease is inevitable. It is the puzzling elements of decease which is responsible for its popularity among literature. Many have chosen to research decease in, arguably the most expressive signifier of literature, poesy ; Wiswala Szymborska and Rainer Maria Rilke are two poets who have explored the inevitableness of decease in the two verse forms ‘The End and the Beginning ‘ ( 1993 ) and ‘The Song of the Widow ‘ ( 1894 ) severally. The discussed subjects include the significance of the rubrics, impacts of decease on persons and societies, the character ‘ and poets ‘ emotional response to decease, function of clip in decease ‘s attack and finally, the objectiveness and subjectiveness of the two verse forms.
Both Szymborska and Rilke focal point on the inevitableness of decease instantly in the rubrics, doing them prodigious. Although the poets ‘ usage of sentence structure and enunciation contrasts, they both aim to put a negative ambiance to prosecute the reader. The downrightness of the rubric ‘The Song of the Widow ‘ efficaciously communicates the overview of the verse form, presenting decease clearly. The enunciation of “ vocal ” straight refers to a lyrical and affectional composing, leting the reader to easy hold on the signifier of poesy and the word picture of “ widow ” AIDSs in puting a cheerless temper as it connotes grief and lament the character over her asleep hubby. Contrastingly, Szymborska applies peculiar sentence structure to add ambiguity to the rubric: the uncertainness of exactly what “ terminal ” and “ get downing ” refers to physiques suspense because the reader is unable to spot the result of the verse form. Indeed, the enunciation of “ terminal ” implies decease and hence creates a melancholy ambiance ; the sentence structure of “ terminal ” predating “ get downing ” could bespeak the laterality of decease. Subversively, Szymborska ‘s usage of ambiguity in the rubric may mirror the obscureness of decease ‘s attack, enforcing an baleful feeling on the reader.
Although decease ‘s attack might be vague, their impacts are however familiar: in ‘The Song of the Widow ‘ , its effects on persons are focused on whereas in ‘The End and the Beginning ‘ , the impacts on societies are dealt with. Szymborska applies the initial rhyme of degree Celsius to repeat the destructive sound of “ carts loaded with cadavers ” against “ rubble ” ; this metaphor represents the inevitable decease of substructures caused by wars. The usage of the exaggeration “ laden ” accents the cheerless imagination of the huge graduated table of deceases involved. The “ carts ” may metaphorically represent how the beginnings of wars get ‘transported ‘ off and disregarded fast ; Szymborska is basically exemplifying our ignorance on the root jobs of struggles and deceases through this verse form. Similarly, Rilke uses dental initial rhyme to uncover the impacts of the decease of the character ‘s hubby. The character is metaphorically “ day-to-day diminishing ” , connoting how her verve is being seeped continuously. The exposure of the character is accentuated by initiating “ destiny ” as it “ gave [ her ] up ” and “ ‘left [ her ] standing ” . The inactive voice and incapacitated tone serves to convey the domination of “ destiny ” over the character ‘s life ; it could be argued that Rilke focuses on the supernatural characteristic of “ destiny ” to reenforce his rigorous dissension against metaphysical naturalism, which states that[ 1 ]all basic truths are truths of nature. Rilke believes that[ 2 ]worlds are lone witnesss of life and there are other forces apart from nature which exist in our lives.
In reaction to the impacts the inevitableness of decease brings, emotions seem to be important in ‘The Song of the Widow ‘ but non in ‘The End and the Beginning ‘ . The deficiency of emotions witnessed in ‘The End and the Beginning ‘ is accented by the situational sarcasm of depicting this war as “ a small drilling ” , making a blunt atmosphere and demonstrates the rough world of deceases and their reverberations without the prejudice intervention of emotions. Furthermore, this austere tone may be used to copy the soldiers ‘ Stoic nature, being highly submissive to their generals and killing heartlessly. Conversely, affecting enunciations “ arrant misery ” , “ hurting ” and “ cryings ” in ‘The Song of the Widow ‘ speech patterns the character ‘s mental response to decease ‘s impacts. This misanthropic tone is reinforced by the common use of negative enunciations, including the three “ no more good, no more new, no more fantastic ” , to reflect the character ‘s pessimistic mentality on life.
The component of clip is arguably one of the many factors which determine decease ‘s attack and this is epitomized by the usage of construction in both verse forms. The last stanza in ‘The Song of the Widow ‘ consists of legion enjambement and deficiency of punctuation used to make a relentless and slow gait. The concurrence “ and ” commences the last two lines of the stanza and forms a lacklustre tone to reenforce the character ‘s inert life. Rilke ‘s usage of comma before the affectional enunciation “ abandoned ” ends the verse form suddenly and signifies isolation ; because “ derelict ” is the last word of the verse form, Rilke may be suggesting how we necessarily meet decease. Death ‘s ineluctable attack is farther supported by the personification of “ decease ” holding no “ forbearance ” . Subversively, ‘abandonment ‘ is an existential philosopher slang mentioning to the fact that[ 3 ]God does non be and we decide our ain being. It could be argued that the enunciation “ emptied ” may denote that the character has experienced the metaphoric decease of kernel and therefore, is free to take her way or is “ abandoned ” in the existentialistic sense. In contrary, there is an copiousness of terminal caesuras in the 10th stanza of ‘The End and the Beginning ‘ , organizing legion short phrases and accordingly increasing the gait. This could stand for the victim ‘s passing lifetime. Additionally, the concurrence “ and ” in the last two lines of the stanza have dissimilar deductions than the 1s in ‘The Song of the Widow ‘ : they signify breaks instead than making a flow to incarnate the disconnected deceases that occur in wars. In contrast to the existential philosopher attack in ‘The Song of the Widow ‘ , a Marxist position can be taken in ‘The End and the Beginning ‘ . The greed for power and money of members of high position in society has forced the lower category citizens to fight and assist “ clean up up ” ; the big graduated table of the inevitable subjugation, emphasized by the repeat of “ person ” , is caused by the disparity between these categories. Szymborska ‘s misanthropic tone in saying the sarcasm of how “ all the cameras have gone to other wars ” possibly reveals the sadistic nature in worlds, where struggle and deceases are treated as amusement.
The nonsubjective position of ‘The End and the Beginning ‘ contrasts to the subjective position of ‘The Song of the Widow ‘ ; this difference is portrayed by the use of the poets ‘ usage of character ‘s voice and tense. Szymborska deliberately makes the character detached from the war by narrating the verse form in 3rd individual. Szymborska narrates this verse form in an perceiver ‘s point of position perchance because[ 4 ]since 1931, she lived in Krakow, which was[ 5 ]comparatively unhurt at the terminal of World War II and hence, she would non hold been exposed to the first-hand experience of war. Furthermore, the fleet passage of tenses in “ those who knew ” to “ those who know small ” accentuates Szymborska ‘s pessimistic position that retaliation, struggle and deceases are passed down coevalss inexorably. Subversively, the patterned advance of cognition from “ those who knew ” to cognizing “ nil less than nil ” could be an allusion of decease since “ nil less than nil ” could mention to a defunct single compared to cognizing “ nil ” . On the other manus, the subjectiveness in ‘The Song of the Widow ‘ is presented by the usage of first individual narrative in a free poetry verse form, straight uncovering the character ‘s disposition and idea. Her rhetorical inquiring, in a ungratified tone, of “ what, so, belonged to [ her ] ; was [ hers ] , [ her ] ain ” emphasizes her weakness. With the aid of the repeat of the 2nd individual enunciation “ your ” , we can easy sympathize with the character ‘s mental battle because, in microcosm, it could be a representation of other similar state of affairss where we have to confront the impacts of the decease of loved 1s or the loss of ownerships. For illustration, Rilke may perchance be mentioning this battle to his female parent ‘s emotional impairment when[ 6 ]his parents ‘ matrimony fell apart in 1884. From a women’s rightist ‘s attack, the character, whether it is mentioning to the “ widow ” or Rilke ‘s female parent, is presented as vulnerable because of the metaphoric decease of fiscal and societal support from male figures, who are deemed as dominant in the patriarchal society. This is reinforced by Rilke ‘s usage of an disdainful tone where the character “ saw [ his hubby ] coming ” and “ took and took ” , meaning that her hubby ‘s laterality even after his decease, as it caused her to lose everything.
Ultimately, decease is a cardinal subject in both verse forms ; while Szymborska portrays decease stoically and superficially by covering with actual decease of population and metaphoric decease societies, Rilke focuses on the intangible emotional facets of persons to show decease ‘s attack. Death is inevitable ; everything has an terminal given sufficient clip: it could be argued that clip is responsible for decease ‘s inevitableness. Hence, the connexion between clip and decease ‘s attack could be a possible extension subject to research.
