Sweet Death

Question 1

What themes does this poem link to?

Answer 1

• Mortality
• Spiritualism/religiosity

Question 2

Stanza 1 key quotes
- ‘The….blossoms…’
- ‘…churchyard’
- ‘…rose up to the sky/Before it……..’

Answer 2

• ‘The sweetest blossoms die’ - each stanza opens with a very stative, factual statement that reflects upon the finality of life & the inevitability of death.
• ‘green churchyard’ = mature, vitality, in bloom/flourishing. Metaphor for how life is preserved/continues on through religion.
• ‘Their perfume rose up to the sky/Before it passed away’

Question 3

Stanza 2 key quotes
- The…blossoms…’
- ‘they…./lately had their…’

Answer 3

• ‘The youngest blossoms die.’ = stative, acceptance of fate.
• ‘nourish the earth…/lately had their birth…’ = rhyming couplet reinforces the circle of life, sweet acceptance of death which will lead to both a spiritual rebirth &…
• ‘Sweet life…sweeter death’ = comparative adj. gredatio emphasises the longing for the more valuable death.

Question 4

Stanza 3 key quotes