The Theme Of Death

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“From the moment we are born, we begin to die.” This quote by Janne Teller reminds us that death is inevitable. Despite this fact, death is still most commonly associated with feelings of fear, grief, and regret. The theme of death is explored in the poems: Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas, War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy, and A Mother in a Refugee Camp by Chinua Achebe. Of the three poems, Do not go gentle into that good night best explores the theme of death because it primarily focuses on this theme, whereas the other two poems use the theme of death to gain the reader’s sympathy towards victims of war. There are several underlying themes in each poem. Do not go gentle into that good night focuses the relationship …show more content…

The tone of Do not go gentle into that good night is extremely profound, however, in the final stanza, the tone changes to a more mournful one. Furthermore, the tone expressed in the final stanza is also more personal, and conceivably even desperate, as the voice of the poet pleads his father to say anything in the line: “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.” Conversely, War Photographer follows a narrative structure; in each stanza, the tone changes according to where is the narrative it is. The first two paragraphs are the rising action. The first paragraph is slow and calm, but ends abruptly with the short sentences: “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.” The first part of the line, “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh,” serves as a sound device, mimicking the sound of gunshots in war, and speeds up the pace of the poem. The latter part of the line, “All flesh is grass,” is an allusion to the bible, referring to how all life is only temporary. Alternatively, this could refer to how deaths are seen as statistics. This idea fits in well with the lines “A hundred agonies … pre-lunch beers.” The whole concept of a war photographer capturing a “hundred agonies in black and white” for money, and the editor picking out only “five or six for the Sunday’s supplement” shows us how deaths are viewed as “grass”, something too common and insignificant to have individual meaning. Additionally, the use of the verb “prick”, in the line “the reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between bath and pre-lunch beers,” implies the readers of the Sunday’s supplement try to force tears when they see these images because these images have become a part of their daily routine (“between bath and pre-lunch beers”). The second stanza opens with the line “He has a job to do,” creating a sense of urgency in the tone, and speeding up the pace of the poem. Similarly, the first line of the third

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