Comparison of Four Poems about Loss

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Comparison of Four Poems about Loss

I am comparing "On my first Sonne" by Ben Jonson (a pre-1914 piece of poetry, written in 1616), "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning (a pre-1914 piece of poetry, written in 1845), "Mid-Term Break" by Seamus Heaney (a piece of poetry from the Heaney bank) and "Cold Knap Lake" by Gillian Clarke (a piece of poetry from the Clarke bank).

The poem, "On my first Sonne" is about the loss of a close family member, Ben Jonson's first son, who died at the age of seven. The poem is about the poet coming to terms with the truth, that his first son had died and he would never see him again. In the poem, the poet goes through different stages of grief and he is very emotional about his loss. The poem opens on an emotional note, "Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy." Even though, in the 1600's, the death of a child was very common, the poet expresses deep sorrow for his loss. He talks about how he committed a sin: of loving his son too much when his son was lent to him, and he paid the price (his son died). "Seven yeeres tho'wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day."

"My Last Duchess" also deals with the loss of a close family member, the Duke's wife. The Duke shows his visitor a portrait of his late wife, which is kept behind a curtain. The Duke tells the story of The Duchess who "had A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad, Too easily impressed." The Duke explains how "she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody's gift." He felt that he could not speak to her about it and the situation became worse. In the end, he says "I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together." From the events the Duke describes, it seems as if he gave orders to have his wife killed. In this poem, although the Duke is talking about his wife's death, there is no love or sadness in his words. The poem is of cold emotion; the only emotion is anger at her behaviour.

Another poem about loss, "Mid-Term Break", confronts the death of Seamus Heaney's younger brother, probably from an accident. Like the previous two poems, Mid-Term Break concerns the loss of a close family member. The overall view of death in this poem is quite a dramatic one, with the description of contrasting emotions of different people. At the beginning it is unemotional. Then the poet describes the emotions and behaviour of others (father, family, friends, the baby, and mother). Finally, the next morning, he goes into his brother's room to see his body. There is a sense of peace in the room, "Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside," and he sees his brother looking pale and lying in his small coffin. At the end of the poem, Heaney appears to accept that his brother is dead and there is an air of calm.
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In contrast to the other three poems discussed previously, the poem, "Cold Knap Lake" describes the near loss of a stranger who would have drowned to death if it was not for Gillian Clarke's mother doing resuscitation on an unknown child. Gillian Clarke remembers her mother giving the girl the kiss of life which ultimately saved her. "my mother gave a stranger's child her breath." In her memory of the incident, Clarke's "father took her (the child) home to a poor house and watched her thrashed for almost drowning." The last part of the poem describes memories and ...

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