How is the theme of death shown by the 2 poets?

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How is the theme of death shown by the 2 poets?

Both the poets have shown death throughout the whole poem consistently, and in both poems it makes me feel that death is something to fear of. This is because both poets show a great amount of torture is done to face death. The poets wanted me to feel depressed and have been able to do so. The poets have used historical events to portray the image of death being very cruel.

In the poem ‘5 ways to kill a man’, the poet has gone through a number of historical events that are related to death and gone through them in chronological order starting from the past and then to present. On line 5 there is a hint of death because it mentions, ‘cock that crows’, my reaction was not surprising as I thought this was a normal execution going to take place at dawn, as a cock crows at dawn. On line 7 it mentions, ‘man to hammer the nails home’, this reflected that the poet was refer to the death of Jesus Christ, I got the feeling of sadness as there in the first stanza there is no reasoning for the death. Therefore I got the feeling of sadness as it was an innocent death and on top of that, torture was given by driving the nails right through the body. On line 10 the use of the words, ‘attempt to pierce the metal cage he wears’, shows there is need of death and again it made me feel sorrow as there is no reasoning given for the death.

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In the third stanza there are many ways for death to occur as the whole stanza refers to world war one as the use of chemical warfare is mentioned. On line 15 the use of words, ‘dispensing with nobility’, this made me confused as why someone would become more noble by killing someone who you do not even probably know. On line 16 it says, ‘blow gas at him’, this refers to the deadly gases released form the bombs, and you have to blow the gas so that the enemy can suffer from the gases. The problem is the wind ...

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