Tichborne's elegy

The second stanza shows Tichborne’s feeling that he has had no influence on anything “my tale was heard, and yet it was not told” this is demonstrating that even though his life has happened it was nothing, another quote that backs up this point is “I saw the world, and yet I was not seen”. “My fruit has fallen, and yet my leaves are green;” shows that he is still young yet the prime of his life has passed. “My thread has been cut, and yet it is not spun;” illustrates the idea that Tichborne’s life has been given to him but it has not been fulfilled.

The third and final stanza talks about how his life had been decided to end this way even before he was born, “I trod the earth, and knew it was my tomb” this is illustrating the idea that he knew that his fate was for him to die early. “I sought my death, and found it in my womb” this shows that when he looked for death he found it in his life, I expect this is because he is being executed for murder so in doing this he killed himself. “I looked for life and saw it was a shade” this is show the same meaning as the line before but in this case he has lived his life and only created ghosts. The repetition of “and now I live, and now my life is done.” At the end of each stanza reinforces his feeling that now he is in the tower about to die he is alive, but he doesn’t have anything to live for.

Nick and me chose this poem because it was of a manageable length and it showed a lot of interesting imagery and ideas.