Memorial Flashcards
“Everywhere she dies. Everywhere I go she dies.”
Repetition
- shows his inescapable awareness of her death
- everything reminds him of her
- only thing he can think of
“No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain””
Repetion
-shows that he is reminded of her death in everything he sees
Rule of 3
- romantic settings
- shows that he can no longer see beauty in these places as her death has tainted them
- places are not beautiful without her presence
“The silence of her dying sounds’
Paradox
- the silence is so intense that it is creating noise
“that thick death, that intolerable distance?”
W.C
“thick”
-suggest an impenetrable barrier
-emphasises the distance between him and his wife
“intolerable”
- can’t stand it
- painfull
“She grieves for my grief.”
- shows that he is aware that she wouldn’t want him to feel this way
- she would hope that he was happy and continued to see the beauty in the world
- highlight the bond the two had when she was still alive
“No crocus is carved more gently/ than the way her dying/ shapes my mind.”
Contrast / Imagery
crocus= flower
-suggests innocence/gentle/fragile/natural flower
compared to her dark death
- her death has has changed the way he thinks
“Ever since she died/ she can’t stop dying.”
imagery
- he is reminded of her death every day
- he is reliving it every day (tortured)
- only thing he can think of
flat/ blunt opening line- similar to opening of poem
“I am a walking masterpiece,/ a true fiction/ of the ugliness of death.”
-he is the personification of death
W.C
“masterpiece”
-suggests something amazing
-used to display his successful transformation into the embodiment of death/despair
“ugliness”
- suggets something not ver peasant looking
- something unwanted
Oxymoron
“true fiction”
-shows his confused state
-doesn’t know whats real anymore
‘I am her sad music.”
Tragic final line
- hopelessly pessimistic
- emphasises the all encompassing nature of grief that he has allowed to consume him
