Memorial Flashcards
“Everywhere she dies. Everywhere I go she dies”
Repetition of “everywhere” shows that her death is haunting him
Depressing and blunt tone
“No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain”
Repetition of “no” shows he gets comfort from those places
“silence of her dying sounds”
Paradox - his grief creates silence that no words of comfort can help
“carousel of language, it’s a web”
Metaphor comparing language to something repetitive
“Web” suggests trapped - can’t get through grief
“How can my hand clasp another’s when between them is that thick death, that intolerable distance?”
“Claps another’s” - shows he cannot move on
“thick death” - shows her death acts as a barrier that he can’t get through
“Intolerable distance” - unbearable distance between speaker and normal life
“She grieves for my grief”
Shows that they had a very close relationship
“that bird dives from the sun, that fish leaps into it”
Reversal - unusual descriptions that don’t make sense to show how his life is turned upside down
“No crocus is carved more gently”
“Crocus” - a natural flower that is carved perfectly just like her death is carved into his mind perfectly and shows the great impact on his life
“black words”
Empty words to cheer him up, but is too upset and they mean nothing to him
“sound if soundlessness”
Oxymoron to emphasise that she is gone and is left with emptiness he can’t escape
“the nowhere she is continuously going into”
Shows they are not religious and she is on a journey that never ends
“she can’t stop dying”
Never ending pain- blunt
“She makes me her elegy”
Keep her memory living on through a poem
“I am a walking masterpiece, a true fiction”
Living tribute - a mascot for death - ironic
Loss is so profound that he is a physical embodiment of a lament - oxymoron
“I am her sad music”
Conclusion - he is her memorial
