Thursday, October 6, 2011

Personification in Death, be not proud

Once again, the speaker in this poem harps on the sureness of death. But, this speaker gives us hope defeating death. He tells Death: "Death...some have called thee/ Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so." This is a bit of a change-up from the usual doom and gloom that usually follows a poem about death. One way he really makes Death human is by calling him a slave, "slave to fat, chance, kings, and desperate men." Death is not all-powerful it too has masters and limits. But the greatest argument the speaker gives about death is in the last stanza. Once we do die, "we wake eternally,/ And death shall be no more;death , thou shalt die." Death always wins, but, according to the speaker, its victory is short-lived when we live in eternity. Then, death meets its own end.

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