Which three poems show alternate views of death, and how are
these views portrayed?
“Remember”, “Plena Timoris”, and “Refugee Mother and Child” all depict alternate outlooks on death, yet similarly emanate from the prospect of lost love. “Remember” by Christina Rossetti is about the uncertainty when anticipating death; “Plena Timoris” by Thomas Hardy is about the death of a woman due to the transience of love and the effect of this death on another woman; conveying a similar stance to “Refugee Mother and Child” by Chinua Achebe, which is about the death of a child in times of famine and destitution, as both view death in a negative light.
“Plena Timoris”, or “a woman full of fear and dread”, revolves around the theme of the transience of love and warns of the dangers of becoming too attached to your lover. The melancholic tone of the poem is immediately inferred, as the use of Latin in the title automatically indicates a certain formality. Indications of the fact that it was written during the Victorian period are also made evident through use of language such as “tryst”, suggesting that the lovers are meeting in secret. This reflects the discreetness of courtship during the Victorian era, as a man could not publicly declare his adoration for a woman, nor could she respond. The reader is primarily introduced to the lovers in the first stanza, where a romantic and light-hearted mood is created through the use of alliteration in “her earrings twinkled; her teeth, too shone” and “they laughed and leant”. There is an immediate mood change thereafter, once the dead body of a woman is found in the river. Not only is action indicated by the immediate change in atmosphere, but is also accentuated by Hardy’s use of the triplet “climbed over; slid down; let go”. The tone for the rest of the poem is a depressing and dismal one. This is given prominence to through Hardy’s use of ominous and morbid language, such as in the statement “a dripping body began to show”, thus showing the reader the dangers of unreciprocated love; “so much for love in this mortal sphere!”, implying that it is considered unfeasible to find real love on earth. There is yet another immediate change in tone hereafter, once the reality of death has hit the female protagonist in the poem. She becomes, along with the mood, detached, aloof and indifferent, as intensified by the simile “it seemed as to freeze her”. Hardy’s use of long vowels in “day” and “lay” also slows down the pace of the stanza, and further stresses the mournful tone of the poem. After witnessing the death, the reader learns that she no longer feels safe as “his arm dropt from his as they wandered away”; it is presumed that the arm represents security, and thus the girl is willingly abandoning the connection she had with her lover.
