Tuesday 4 March 2014

Can I have a detailed analysis of the poem ''Death'' by William Bell Scott in terms of structure/language/themes/imageries/tone ?

The poem has an irregular structure: the three stanzas are roughly, but not exactly, the same length. The first is 11 lines, the second, 13, and the third 12. The rhyme scheme is also irregular. However, each stanza ends in a rhyming couplet: "and/expand," "place/race," "crown/down." Rhythm is also established through the repetition of words within the first two stanzas, such as "create" and "moth" in stanza one and "fear me not" in stanza two.


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The poem has an irregular structure: the three stanzas are roughly, but not exactly, the same length. The first is 11 lines, the second, 13, and the third 12. The rhyme scheme is also irregular. However, each stanza ends in a rhyming couplet: "and/expand," "place/race," "crown/down." Rhythm is also established through the repetition of words within the first two stanzas, such as "create" and "moth" in stanza one and "fear me not" in stanza two.


The language is conversational: Death is personified, and he is having a straightforward talk with us.


The theme is not to fear death; death is a part of who we are. It is not death itself but our attitude toward it that creates fear. Death says: 



Fear me not, man; I am the blood that flows
Within thee,–I am change; and it is I
Creates a joy within thee



However, those who fear death "stumble" and for them death becomes a "cold chain around thy neck."


Imagery is description using the five senses. Some of the images in this poem include comparing man to a moth, a creature that has only a short time on earth, while death is likened to "hoary dust," sleep, the dark and blood. People who fear and worry about death are compared to those who fear walking on ice and as a result stumble. In the final line, the hair of the dead is likened to "thistle down," suggesting it is growing up out of the grave as the body returns to nature. 


The tone weaves back and forth between comforting and chilly, reflecting the theme that our attitude toward death determines whether or not it is frightening. Chilly moments include death as alone, having no father or brother, death as "dark and tongueless," and death, if feared, as a "cold chain." Comforting moments include the notion of death as freeing by clearing away the old. Death says:



I am change; and it is I
Creates a joy within thee, when thou feel’st
Manhood and new untried superior powers
Rising before thee: I it is can make
          Old things give place
          To thy free race.





 

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