Each of the six poems has a different approach towards death. Just as people do, each one of us beholds a different emotion

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“Death isn’t a stage where actors go down to change their costumes and come back.”

The mere thought of death is quite intriguing. To most of us to contemplate about death is unpleasant. The feel of losing someone you love torments you. Death ends lives, breaks bonds, and demolishes one’s existence. It deprives you from your most loved ones, from the dreams that you have been drawing and from those precious moments you wish to prolong. As cruel as it could be, it could not be prevented; it’s the cycle of the mortal life we have been granted. I stoutly believe that even after your death, your picture is still in the hearts of the ones that loved you and cared about you. When you leave this world, your life commences all over again, not on Earth but in a better place called Heaven.

Each of the six poems has a different approach towards death. Just as people do, each one of us beholds a different emotion that is triggered at the loss of a dear person. Similarly, poems are a person’s writings, someone who’s mourned or someone who doesn’t want to be forgotten. Including these, there are some which portray how death could be pleasant in ugly situations and others how one should fight death with all the power in them.

Remember is one of the poems that is really dear to my heart. This poem preaches the idea of remembering the person that left this life. Remembering his presence and cherishing those moments you shared. Remember is one of the famous poems from the English poet Christina Rossetti in the nineteenth century, she mainly wrote romantic, devotional and children’s poems. “Remember” is a sonnet, which describes a romantic relationship between a man and a woman as one of them dies. The idea dwells on the subject of memory and whether to remember a person after their death or not.

The poem starts with “remember me when I’m gone away, gone far away into the silent land;” the persona here wants to be remembered after her death. Her use of euphemism in “gone away”, softens the meaning of how cruel death can be and also signifies how alerting and irritating the subject of death is to her. Rossetti described after life metaphorically in “the silent land”. As it gives a more effective and touching meaning, portraying how calm and peaceful afterlife is, which she uses to make it more tolerable for her partner to cope with her departure. “When you can no more hold me by the hand,” this emphasizes the relation they had as the gesture of holding hands usually occurs between couples. We notice that the poem is directed towards someone special for the persona and dear to her heart.

Rossetti’s craft in using rhyming words in her sonnet such as “away”, “day”, and “pray” adds to the reader’s enjoyment and helps the person connect to the poet’s feelings and emotionally go through the patterns of the poem. Consequently the word “remember” is repeated as an emphasis for her loved one not to forget her. As much stress is put on remembering the person, Rossetti, however, contrasts it “better by far you should forget and smile than you should remember and be sad.” She believes that if she is ought to be remembered and the persona recalling her memory will feel bitter; then she would rather not have him in pain. This shows how loving a person can let you compromise your own happiness for the price of theirs.

On the other hand, a beautiful poem to me is a poem that evokes a mixture of feelings inside me and triggers my emotions to swiftly descend and take over my mind and heart. A poem that makes me deliberately undergo the same sentiment portrayed and is attached to my mind as years overtake. This one specific poem “Do not stand at my grave and weep” is one of the saddest poems in my point of view. Frye begins with two lines that distinctly describe the meaning of the poem. “Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there; I do not sleep.” It’s a very intimate note left to a lover after the persona passed away. She insists on enlightening that when she passes away although her body is buried, she is no longer there. She has moved on to a better place and she wants those left in mourning to remember that she is not gone forever, she will still be with them in memory and thought.

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Frye introduces the rest of the poem through metaphors, as to bring comfort to her loved ones after she is dead. “I am a thousand winds that blow; I am the diamond glints on snow.” The metaphors here are to sooth her family and friends from her loss, she describes herself as the “wind” and “glints on snow” so her family can think of her when they see the snow or feel the wind. Similarly, “I am the sun on ripened grain; I am the gentle autumn rain.” Symbolism is significant in this poem as she uses different aspects of nature ...

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