Honestly, I was having a difficult time deciding what paper I had that could be sufficiently expanded upon in order to make it a digital, multi-modal project. I have chosen a poetry analysis I did during my first semester at Lewis for Dr. White's Intro to English Studies class. In the paper we were asked to take the poem that we had chosen to recite, and analyze it, line for line into what interpretation we thought the poem was about. The paper has many elements from interpretation to also analyzing poetic elements as rhyme, alliteration, assonance, ceasura, and so on.
My idea for this project was to possibly link hyperlinks in the text that better explain the different poetic elements. Also possibly a reading of the poem to better show and enhance certain breaks, pauses, ceasuras and so on. I'm pretty sure more can be done with this as well, but this is where I am with a start. The paper I am uploading is a rough draft of the final essay, but at the moment that is all I can find so I know some edits will be needed.
“After Death” and the Role of Unrequited Love
“After Death” is a sonnet in which the speaker addresses a man in her life after she is already dead, making it clear that there is an unrequited love which was common in lyric poetry. The woman and man’s relationship is unclear. The man says to her, “Poor child…” indicating that the man could be her father. The speaker also touches upon how this man does not show her any affection in her death, linking the possibility that he could be a lover as well. This poem brings up many questions considering its own context: not only who this man is, but also why he seems so indifferent to her after she has died. In addition, there is a supernatural aspect to the poem since the speaker is looking at herself in her own death. Given the aspect of the speaker, and the fact that she is comfortable in her own death, convinces the reader that the narrator took her own life and finds joy in her death. She finds joy in her own death because of the depression she seemed to suffer in her life.
In the sonnet “After Death”, the imagery makes in impact of the somber mood of the sonnet. The imagery of “rushes, rosemary, and may” allude to mourning. There are images of light becoming dark with the “curtains being half drawn”, and the “shadows creeping” into the room in which the deceased woman lay. There is a speaker in the poem, and a man who speaks to the deceased woman. The end rhyme of the poem stands out as well. It is noticeable that many of the end rhyme words in fact rhymed with the word death, such as, “swept”, “crept”, and “wept”. The other end rhyme words, “may”, “lay”, “say”, and “away” are also reminiscent of death. The pattern of the rhyme was noticeable, even though the scheme was odd. There is a pattern of caesura, marking dramatic effect because of the abrupt stop. A contrasting aspect of the poem is that it is told from the point of view of a woman who is dead. The woman sees a man who is visiting her at her wake, and she is seeing him in her death. The overall feeling of the poem struck me as somber and bitter. The narrator takes a personal approach that makes the piece feel as if you are experiencing her emotions.
It is clear the subject of the poem is death, and the narrator is experiencing an unrequited love with the man who is seeing her on her death bed. While the narrator is speaking to a man, but it is not clear who exactly she is speaking to. She says the man did not love her while she was alive, and she sees the man in his unwillingness to show her dead body any affection. The man in the poem does speak two words, being “Poor child, poor child” leading me to believe this man could have been her father. The exchange between the narrator’s body and the man in the poem draws an impersonal feel.
It is obvious the poem takes place in the mid to late 1800’s at a wake. On first analysis, the reader can decipher this as a work of the narrator saying goodbye to someone who was once close to her, and in her death realizing that the person did not care for her while she was living or dead. Thinking upon the subject, I began to wonder if the narrator was glad of her death. The end of the poem suggests that she is happy to be dead when she says, “…and very sweet it is to know he is still warm though I am cold”. I believe the relationship between the narrator and the man was so tumultuous that she ended her own life out of spite for the man not loving her. To better understand this theory, I will break down the poem line by line. The poem starts with a juxtaposed sentence that takes up the first three lines.
The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept
And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may
Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay,
Where through the lattice ivy-shadows crept.
These lines are full of imagery of flowers being in abundance at the narrator’s wake. Flowers are a symbol of mourning, and it appears the flowers are in abundance. The abundance of flowers leads me to believe there were or are mourners there who loved this woman. The curtains being half drawn gives the image of sunlight going to darkness. Shadows are also a symbol of sunlight to darkness. The imagery of sunlight traveling to darkness can be linked to life traveling to death.
He leaned above me, thinking that I slept
And could not hear him; but I heard him say,
‘Poor child, poor child’: and as he turned away
Came a deep silence, and I knew he wept.
The rhyme scheme in these lines is the same as the first four lines, being ABBA. The words “slept” and “wept” in these lines, as well as “swept” and “crept” in the first four lines rhyme with the word death. These rhymes help bring out the sound of the word death to deepen the meaning. The reader is introduced to a man in the poem who is leaning over the dead woman. He speaks, and the only words he says are “Poor child” leading the reader to believe he could be the speaker’s father. Although the speaker’s body is sleeping, her soul is awake seeing the happenings of her wake, giving this poem a supernatural feel. These lines all have a caesura as well, giving the lines a dramatic effect in the pausing of the words. The fact that the narrator says she knew he wept, but we cannot see the man weeping himself leads me to believe that she has accepted her own fate. Also, that she seemed to know this man in an intimate manner because she could notice him weeping, even though the reader cannot see him weeping.
He did not touch the shroud, or raise the fold
That hid my face, or take my hand in his,
Or ruffle the smooth pillows for my head:
These three lines take on a different rhyme scheme, becoming CDEE. The man is subjective and not at all endearing in his mannerisms. He seems unwilling to touch her, drawing the conclusion that if he is not able to touch her in death, he also was not willing to touch her in life as well. The line “ruffle the smooth pillows”, I took notice of because of the contrast between the words ruffle and smooth. Ruffle seems to be rough and tousle something. Smooth means that a surface does not have any breaks in it. I interpreted this as her life and her death. Her life seemed to be rough as her death seems to be clean and smooth itself.
He did not love me living; but once dead
He pitied me; and very sweet it is
To know he still is warm though I am cold.
These last three lines are very telling of what the relationship was like between this man and woman. The narrator directly says this man did not love her. She is criticizing him in saying that he only pities her death, but not that she did in fact die. She seems to relish the fact that she is dead and he is alive. She says it is sweet to know he is warm and she is cold, while warm is related to living as cold is related to death. The narrator seems very accepting of her death, which may lead readers to believe of the possibility of her death as self-inflicted. The last line is whole while the two preceding lines have a caesura. The last line not having a break draws on the finality of her accepting her death, while the lines with the caesura seem to be speaking in context of the relationship between the two as a strained one.
