Barbara
Wiesen
Dr.
Porter
ENGL
4420
May
14, 2015
Death and Suffering
When
combing through all of the blog posts I realized how drawn I am to the concept
of death and suffering. Several of the
poems that we discussed throughout the course of the semester seem to have
encompassed one or both of these themes.
Their prevalence does vary. In
some poems death and suffering are merely a concept looming over the surface
that is never actually mentioned, while in other pieces it is undeniably one of
the main themes. I have chosen three
poems to discuss that I feel touch on these ideas in great detail. John Donne’s “The Funeral,” Lord Alfred
Tennyson’s “Mariana,” and Louis MacNeice’s “The Sunlight in the Garden” all
utilize the themes of death and suffering in an attempt to cope with an idea or
feeling. By being able see how these
poets or their speakers grieve through these moments, we as readers are able to
gain a better concept of human experience.
In
John Donne’s “The Funeral” the speaker is already deceased and is addressing
those who are about to bury him. The
poem goes through an array of moods as we see the speaker struggle with his own
death and his feelings towards his lover.
It’s interesting to see someone struggle with death after they have already
died. The speaker is not struggling with
the inevitability of death, but the lack of control he has over situation. Around his wrist is a lock of his lover’s
hair. The hair represents a sort of
external soul and he believes it will keep his body from disintegrating making
him immortal. In an article
published in Verso: An Undergraduate
Journal of Literary Criticism, author Frances Dorenbaum suggests that “Donne
maintains that hair is connected to life. While the future corpse struggles to
overcome physical existence, hair itself also lingers between life and death”
(Dorenbaum, 7). The hair is attempting to
conquer the ephemeral of the human body and aiding the speaker in his resistance of decomposition. It is a symbol of the
speaker’s strife and confusion as he tries to understand what is happening to
him.
The
hair is also representational of his struggles with his lover. The hair is a shackle placed by his lover, intended
to imprison him, and cause an eternity of suffering. Throughout the poem we are left with this feeling
that our speaker is in mental anguish.
By the end of stanza of 2 his suffering manifests itself into anger “Can
better do’t; except she meant that I / By this should know my pain, / As
prisoners then are manacled, when they’re condemned to die” (14-16). Here he acknowledges his suffering and the
fact that he is his lover’s prisoner. It
sounds as if his lover is taking advantage of his suffering and using for their
own personal gain. He continues on to explain that he wishes to die a martyr for
love, but that would mean that people might see the hair as a relic. If he is buried with the hair then he will
have taken a part of her to the grave while she is still alive, leaving no physical
evidence of their love. The speaker is
not suffering because he is dead. The
speaker is suffering because he was wronged.
He presents us with ideas of anger and bargaining to display his
suffering in death. He also uses revenge
to ease his pain by choosing to be buried with the lock of hair.
In
Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Mariana” death and suffering are experienced through feelings
of isolation and depression. A bit a of back story
might be helpful when dissecting this piece.
Firstly, it is important to note that “Mariana” was written as a lyrical
narrative and is mostly in iambic tetrameter form. The character of Mariana is based off of
Shakespeare’s Measure for a Measure
where a character by the same name is waiting for her lover who has abandoned
her upon the loss of her dowry. John Everett
Millias also produced a painting of Mariana that shows her in the isolation of
her own home. It is interesting to see how
various forms of art can all feed off of the same idea. While I must admit the painting does not
portray Mariana to be as disheveled as I had imagined her, her home is slightly
messy and she is in a stance that could indicate physical pain. If nothing else the painting, illustrates
beauty of interpretation.
Like
Shakespeare’s Mariana, Tennyson’s Mariana is also waiting for the return of a
lover. In the refrain of the poem she
says, “‘My life is dreary, / He cometh not,’ she said; / She said, ‘I am
aweary, aweary, / I would that I were dead!’” (9-12) or a variation of this
depending on the stanza. She expresses
that she is longing for her lover so immensely that she would rather be dead
than be without him. In addition to the
use of a refrain, Tennyson also uses a few symbolic references in the piece to
reiterate these dark themes. The poplar tree, which is first mentioned in
stanza four, brings on apparent signs of darkness as it casts its shadow over
her bed. This shadow acts as a reminder
of the darkness that surrounds her day and night. An article published in South Atlantic Bulletin,
points out that “The only tree in the area, it contrasts dramatically with the
flat terrain and other vegetation” (Gunther, 65). The tree standing alone in the middle a field
could be mirroring ideas of the isolation that Mariana is experiencing. The Oxford English Dictionary described the
poplar tree as, “the bleeding heart tree,” and notes that the tree possesses
heart shape leaves. Knowing this helps
us even further to relate the appearance of the tree to Marianna’s suffering. The unkempt home around her is crumbling as
she is crumbling. Mariana’s suicidal
ideations are made clear through the refrain of the piece. Her suffering reverberates not only through
her words, but through the world around her.
Through these concepts we are able to understand Mariana’s feelings of
isolation and depression.
“The
Sunlight on the Garden” by Louis MacNeice is composed of four stanzas, six
lines each. MacNeice uses internal rhyme
to create three beats in almost every line.
This poem takes the themes of death and suffering and uses them to form
acceptance and freedom. The speaker
begins the poem by noting the image of sunlight shining on to the garden, “We
cannot cage the minute / Within its nets of gold,” (3-4). Here the speaker realizes that like most
things in life, this beautiful moment will end.
We can create memories, but we cannot make time stand still. He continues on, “When all is told / We cannot
beg for pardon,” (5-6). In these next lines the speaker conveys an
understanding that life is moving towards its end. Line 6 indicates the speaker beginning to
accept their own death. He reiterates
this idea of accepting death again in lines 11 and 12, “And soon, my friend, / We
shall have no time for dances.” The
speaker is recognizing that joy will end, the same as the moments of beauty
will end also. Lines 17-18, “The earth
compels, / We are dying, Egypt, dying,” are a reference to Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. In the play Mark Antony mutters, “I am dying,
Egypt, dying” (IV, xv, 41) to Cleopatra as he lays fading in her arms.
The speaker in both Shakespeare’s
play and MacNeice’s poem is suffering as they accept that death is to come.
The
fourth and final stanza of this poem makes a slight shift.
“And not expecting
pardon,
Hardened in heart
anew,
But glad to have
sat under
Thunder and rain
with you,
And grateful too
For
sunlight on the garden.” (19-24)
Now that the speaker has
had time to consider the idea of death, he is no longer in pain. Despite that the speaker knows he is going to
die, he accepts his fate and becomes thankful for the experiences that he has
been given. His recognition of what is
to come allows a sense of freedom to experience whatever life he has left
without suffering or negativity.
These three poems, “The Funeral,” “Mariana,” and “The
Sunlight on the Garden,” all toy with the themes of death and suffering. Through these ideas we as readers are able to
gain a better grasp of the different experiences that coincide with death and
suffering. Donne’s “The Funeral” gives
an example of someone’s feelings of anger, revenge, and bargaining. Tennyson’s “Mariana” shows how suffering from
isolation and depression can prompt ideas of death. MacNeice’s “The Sunlight in the Garden” demonstrations
that if we can accept the finality of death, the rest of our lives will contain
minimal suffering. Death and suffering
are prominent themes in life and literature.
We are able to better understand the necessity of these things by
examining them through art.
Works Cited Links
Dorenbaum, Frances.
"Images of Hair Through John Donne's Work." Verso: An Undergraduate
Journal
of Literary Criticism (2012): 5-11. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 12 May 2015. <https://ojs.library.dal.ca/verso/article/view/487/481>.
Gunter, G. O. "Life
and Death Symbols in Tennyson's "Mariana"" South Atlantic
Bullentin 36.3
(1971):
64-67. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 12 May 2015.
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