Compare how death is presented in three poems in the Anthology

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English literature coursework – Poetry anthology

Compare how death is presented in three poems in the Anthology

The three poems Remember by Christina Rossetti, Plena Timoris by Thomas Hardy and Refugee Mother and Child by Chinua Achebe all portray death in different ways. Rossetti explores the acceptance of death, whereas, in Refugee Mother and Child we see the unwavering love the mother has for the child. In the poem Plena Timoris the persona recalls how love can be so extreme that could lead to despair and death. What I found intriguing about these poems was how love could be both a dangerous and positive force towards the subject of death. Love could drive a person to their grave but also love could be the will for a person to stay strong and never giving up.  

Christina Rossetti a devote Anglican to whom church and family were paramount. It is known that two marriage proposals which did not live up to her religious fervour therefore she turned them down. Because of her religion Rossetti appears to have been obsessed with her own pending death in this poem. Her belief was that death was the ultimate goal for everyone, and because of such she very much planned her own pending death. The structure of this poem was in a Pertrachan Italian sonnet form. In this form poems are meant to be very structured and are need of following a strict rhyme scheme. However there was a change in rhyme scheme between the octet and sestet. In the octet the phrase “Remember me” was mentioned three times, but a sudden change was then noticed, as in the sestet “Forget me” was repeated twice. This change is used to suggest the possibility of forgetting and being happy rather having instructions to remember. This could show even before her death she was still doubtful between secular love and materialistic love.

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Chinua Achebe is a proud Nigerian who observed the civil war in his country and horrific suffering of the innocent refugees. In Refugee Mother and Child he relates the sadness of death between a child and a mother by writing in free verse. The line length of the whole entire poem was three lines. In the first stanza there is only one sentence, and in the last stanza two sentences were present. These long sentence increases the intensity on the images and also the enjambment suggests the suffering of these innocent refugees.

Plena Timoris is set within the conservative ...

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