“When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.” (John Donne, ‘Meditation XVII’) What does death mean in literature? Answer this question in relation to two texts from the module.
We have chosen to very different writers whose work we are going to examine in relation as to what death means in there writing. We will look at George Crabbe’s’ Peter Grimes from his book of poems The Borough and John Donne’s ‘John Donne: the complete English poems’ we have selected three poems of Donne, The Expiration, The Apparition and The Paradox. The essay will look at the meaning of death in these texts we see how the writers see death and if death as different connotations to each writer. These are two very different writers Crabbe is known for his realist narratives focusing on his description of the working and middle classes in his poetry. John Donne is a metaphysical poet, metaphysical poetry is highly intellectualized poetry marked by bold and ingenious conceits, incongruous imagery, complexity and subtlety of thought, frequent use of paradox, and often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression .
Donne’s poems are obsessed with death no fewer than 32 of his 54 sonnets and poems make references to death and mortality. In Donne’s case death is all about is not death as we know it, death revolves around ending of relationships and these poems tend to get quite dark towards the end and bitter. Done tackled many themes but death was all an occurring theme, particularly in his later work. As his famous ‘Nocturnal upon St Lucy’s Day’ phrases it, ‘I … am the grave / Of all that’s nothing (ll. 21–22).
Donne’s short poem the ‘The Apparition’ ‘The Apparition’, Apparition is a spirt or ghost. The poem starts with a striking address to the reader, who is a woman spurned his advances and failed to be persuaded by his charms, and subsequently abandoned him:
‘When by thy scorn, O murdr’ess, I am dead,
And that thou think’st thee free
From all solicitation from me,
Then shall my ghost come to thy bed …
From this first line is quite and full of anger, from this he has been scorned, scorn is makes a powerful beginning, scorn means a very strong feeling of no respect for someone, so the narrator is angry. Which is followed by ‘O murdr’ess, I am dead’. There is very large hint that he the narrator has killed himself, but it is the female who he describes as his killer, spurned his advances, The next two lines are quite menacing and threating ‘And that thou think’st thee free From all solicitation from me’ Donne goes on to threaten the women the word solicitation meaning is the action of soliciting a person of the other sex . From the word solicitation we can see that Donne sees the woman as a someone who can facilitate his sexual needs. The poems central point is death is not the end you can come back as a ghost, Donne here is using his death as threat to come back a take revenge on this woman. Has he failed to win in life, he will attempt to do this a as a phantom in death, visiting her and her lover in bed. And what happens next is seen with truly great relish:
‘And then poor aspen wretch, neglected thou
Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie
A verier ghost than I’
Done became a Protestant in the 1590s, with the ‘The Apparition’ it draws on his Catholic background, and beliefs rejected by the Anglican church that the ghosts of the undead return to avenge the living an Apparition being a ghost or sprit. With a lot of Donne’s poetry, there is so an image of a strong carnal, relating to the physical feelings and desires of the body and vengeful fantasy, as the narrator wants to do in death which could not do in life. The Narrator mentions bath in quicksilver, quicksilver was used to treat syphilis, here the is a heavy hint that the woman carries a sexually transmitted disease
The poem’s ending is baleful:
since my love is spent,
I’had rather thou should’st painfully repent,
Than by my threat’nings rest still innocent.
Here the languages of sex and religion are held in ominous balance: the ‘murd’ress’ is encouraged to repent her sin – but by sleeping with the ‘threat’ning’ narrator and thus losing her precious ‘innocence’ .
‘The Expiration’ by Donne is a story of two lovers, at their final meeting before the split for good. The title ‘The Expiration’ John Donne use the word expiration, expiration has many meanings as an expression of the end, the parting, but we could also say vapour vaporise disappear. With the insertion of the ‘the’ before expiration gives an emphasis that is finally the end of the relationship. We will be exploring the second versus of the poem
Goe; and if that word have not quite kil’d thee,
Ease mee with death, by bidding mee goe too.
Oh, if it have, let my word worke on mee,
And a just office on a murderer doe.
Except it be too late, to kill me so,
Being double dead, going, and bidding, goe.
With the first part the poem, dealing with the love the couple have for each but also the realization their explicit affair cannot continue
‘Goe; and if that word has not quite kil’d thee, Ease mee with death,’ has with works by Donne love and death are used together. With the first poem ‘The Apparition’ the narrator who scorned by woman who refuses his attentions and the narrator is quite a dark character. The narrator in The Expiration is not menacing, but some deeply in love ‘Goe; if that word had not quite kil’d thee Ease mee with death.’ here the narrator is telling his lover to go but if she not torn apart by him telling her to go he wants to find Comfort, absence of pain or trouble (ease) and die. ‘Oh, if it have, let my word worke on mee,
And a just office on a murderer doe’.
The word office a service or kindness done, or attention shown or given by using this that ending the affair is an act of kindness and he says ‘on a murderer doe’ Donne is saying the act of kindness in ending the affair, the words have killed him in saying by saying goe. The final two lines ‘Except it be too late, to kill me so, Being double dead, going, and bidding, goe.’
Donne’s obsession with death is well documented, as a great amount of his work referees to the subject. As with most of his work, however, he often changes his opinion on death, leaving a perplexed reader on how he does feel about death as a subject. It is safe to assume Donne did not fear death in a conventional way, he believed that there was of an afterlife. His faith in Christian faith mainly in his early days when he was a Catholic calmed those fears and doubts, but he did search for answers to questions about death, answers that had no explanation. For that reason, his poems are highly paradoxical.
Donne’s ‘The Paradox’ Paradox meaning is a statement which is self- contradicting . The poem the starts with talk of love but does turn to death has in many of Donne’s poems. We start with examining the first paragraph by the end the narrator starts to talk death:
No Lover saith, I love, nor any other
Can judge a perfect Lover;
Hee thinkes that else none can or will agree,
That any loves but hee:
I cannot say I lov’d, for who can say
Hee was kill’d yesterday.
With this poem we have to look at it full, as with many of Donne’s poems love and death are deeply inter woven. Is this a poem about love or not, in the first two line he is saying ‘No Lover saith, I love, nor any other can judge a perfect Lover;’ he is saying you can be a lover but have to love, there is no can be a perfect lover also. The next two lines ‘I cannot say I lov’d for who can say/ Hee was kill’d yesterday’ Kill’d has more than one meaning not just death but, but to destroy a relationship here again Donne is relating love and death but, in the sense, that the relationship was killed off the day before, but were they together long enough to be in love.
Moving on ‘Love with excesse of heat’ let us examine excesses and heat, with excesse we get overindulgence and with heat we are not talking about temperature an intense feeling for anger or excitement, or is Donne relating to sex, has an animal on heat in a state of sexual excitement, ‘Death kills with to much cold;’ Donne is telling the end of the relationship and with the word cold we can assume, the meaning being is due to lack of affection, feel unemotional.
Wee dye but once, and who lov’d last did die,
Hee that saith twice, doth lye
The next part of the poem ‘Wee dye but once, and who lov’d last die’ the first thing we notice is the two different spelling of the word die, but do they have the same meaning or Donne toying with the reader. What Donne is saying is we die once but they who last will not be forgotten, he is using the word be forgotten has the meaning for die. Moving on’ Hee that saith twice, doth lye’ he dies twice does lie.
Once I love and dyed; and am now become
Mine Epitaph and Tombe
Here dead men speake their last, and so do I;
Love-slaine, loe here I dye
Examining the last part of the poem, ‘Once I love and dyed; what Donne is saying to here is he as loved and being forgotten, will be the words wrote on his tombe he goes on ‘dead men speake there last, and so do I, Love -slaine loe here I dye’. Antonio S. Oliver states ‘Donne is telling us has love killed him inside. His contradictory behavior is demonstrated by a fear of death, sometimes expressed in his search for ways in which he could triumph over it instead of becoming its victim, which fueled his interest in the practice of suicide, .
Next, we will be examining the poem Peter Grimes by George Crabbe: this quite a dark poem and centres on the murders of Grimes father and his young apprentices, Peter Grimes tells the story of Grimes’ the murders, his punishment in the eyes of the law and his mental state of mind. The essay will be examining Grimes Murders and how George Crabbe perceives death. Plus, it also we also see the reinforcing the social attitudes to child abuse at the time. Crabbe bases The Borough in Aldeburgh in Suffolk although not named.
The poem starts with Grimes’ childhood as ‘Old Grimes’ becomes a fisherman. His father is a fisherman who ‘left trade upon the Sabbath-day, ‘And took young Peter in his hand to pray’, this starts the dispute about religion. The young Peter ‘from care broke loose’ he is rejecting religion and with that he is rejecting his father’s authority. One particularly argument, Grimes scolds his father’s and ‘dealt the sacrilegious blow’, killing his father. ‘Sacrilegious’ means against God or blasphemous. This highlights Grime’s anti-religious views has his motive for his father’s murder. His father goes to say remark about his wife and Grimes, mother, left him in a ‘happy time’ ‘heaven spares the double-crime’ because Grimes was unable to kill her too.
Grimes built a ‘mud-walled hovel, here he kept his various wealth ‘and sometimes slept. But being Grimes’ no success could please his soul; he wish’d for one to control’ this indicating a malicious strike in Grimes. This has to be one the most troubling parts of the poem, revealing Grimes to true psyche as criminal psychopath who acts for his own desire to control people. This part of poem the narrator tells us ‘Peter had heard there were in London then… / workhouse-clearing men’ and decides to make ‘toiling slaves of piteous orphans’: Grimes buy a young apprentice and his next victim.
Moving on to the next part f the poem, this reveals what we would now consider child abuse The narrator describes the ‘bruise’, ‘ridges on his back’ a clear sign of beating and starvation, he goes on ‘his shivering in the winter. It here, Crabbe repeats his social commentary through the use of ‘none’ to emphasise why nobody is interested in the wellbeing of the child and that society did not intervene despite concerns for the child’s welfare’ on hearing is cries. Instead they say ‘Grimes is at his exercise’ reinforcing the social ignorance the town people and the judiciary system at the time.
The maltreatment and neglect worsened as the orphan is ‘pinned, beaten, cold, pinched, threatened and abused’ here Crabbe does not spare the graphic detail of the cruelty subjected to the orphan, here does want to the reader to be as ignorant as the townspeople were. Repeating the word blow twice, the narrator is referring explicitly to the beatings that Grimes is giving the orphan leading to his death ‘for three sad years the boy his tortures bore, And then his pains and trials were no more’. When asked how the orphan died, Grime ‘growled – ‘I found him lifeless in his bed’. With the growl appearing to be too aggressive to him applied a softer tone, with many questions being asked there is little proof.
Grimes went on to murder a further two boys he got delight from his ability in getting away with murders. But also goes on to see the spirit of his father and two young boys.
Crabbe writing of the poem is quite graphic, and he wants the reader to see this. With the Deaths in the poem, in the build-up we assume that peter had been abused himself by his father; leading to a lack of empathy towards others. Crabbe is showing us the social attitudes at the time and uses the deaths as a way of highlighting people’s lack social empathy as the they let Grimes carry on with his killing spree, turning a blind eye to the offences.
Bibliography
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