Critical Essays Analysis of The Prelude

"The Prelude is the greatest long poem in our language after Paradise Lost," says one critic. Its
comparison with the great seventeenth-century epic is in some respects a happy one since Milton was
(after Coleridge) Wordsworth's greatest idol.

The Prelude may be classed somewhat loosely as an epic; it does not satisfy all the traditional
qualifications of that genre. The epic is customarily defined as a long narrative poem which recounts
heroic actions, commonly legendary or historical, and usually of one principal hero (from whence it
derives its unity). The Prelude takes its unity from the fact that the central "hero" is its author.

The poem is written in blank verse, unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter with certain permissible
substitutions of trochees and anapests to relieve the monotony of the iambic foot and with total disregard
for the stanza form. In the middle of the eighteenth century, there was an eclipse of interest in the rhymed
heroic couplet. A revival of interest in Milton led to the establishment of Miltonic blank verse as the
standard medium for lengthy philosophical or didactic poetical works. The resulting form came to be
called the "literary" epic as opposed to heroic and folk epics. To this type, Wordsworth, with his
unconventional ideas of diction, brought a natural and conversational tone.

The general procedure in The Prelude is to record an experience from the poet's past and then to examine
its philosophical and psychological significance and relate it to nature and society at large. Unfortunately,
this results in a certain definite unevenness in the development of the narrative. At times, particularly in
the latter half of the work, the narrative dries up altogether, and the reader must pick his way through a
welter of disconnected disquisitions. Frequently verbose, diffuse, and bathetic, the verse is carried by
those rare moments when it flashes fire or reaches a resounding note of rich poetic song. The unwavering
strength and unity of purpose which underlie it also help it to soar. Only a mere fraction of the whole
poem may be said to be great, but it is this fraction that has continued to secure it a place high in English
literature.

Another drawback of the verse is its blatant repetition. Wordsworth will describe an intellectual
experience again and again with only minor variations. Much of this repetition may be due to the poet's
episodic efforts to show his shifting point of view in connection with certain basic ideas.

Most of the imagery, as well as the diction, reflects the natural environment, especially the English
countryside, and manages to capture much of the wildness and beauty of that terrain. The influence of the
English character may be traced in many of the ideas behind the poem. Just as Wordsworth never got far
or was long from his native regions physically, so they continued to color his emotional reactions
throughout his life. It is doubtful that he would have created an inimitable philosophy of nature had he
been reared in London's slums. In his lifetime, his mental outlook swung from youthful radicalism to
ultraconservatism. Politically, the fierce independence of character the poet admired in the yeoman of the
North Country came to be symbolized by the French patriot; later he felt that conservative British
institutions were the bulwark of true freedom. Artistically and religiously, he found youthful inspiration
in the hills and vales of the Lake District; he responded to them with his simple ballads and a joyous
mysticism. In maturity, it was the high Anglican Church tradition to which he turned, for a personal faith
and as a source for many of his later poetical ideas. Of course, we do not witness the entire spectrum
inThe Prelude. That poem is basically democratic in spirit. Only at the very end do we feel the impending
onset of conservatism.

The work seems deceptively free of learned allusions, but the reader is sure to find many obscure classical
references. In addition, there are quite a few local place names which are difficult to trace. The poem
employs symbols in a somewhat unsophisticated way so that language and feeling tend to be
indistinguishable. When Wordsworth puts aside his tendency to pamphleteer, mood and form tend to
merge in highest harmony; the words perfectly evoke feeling. In the best instances, there is such mastery
of the medium that the true goal of poetry is achieved: There is so perfect a communication of experience
that the language as a vehicle is forgotten. From this harmony, a great poetic power emerges; with the
very simplest of words and images, Wordsworth creates the impression of terrible intensity.

For many readers, the aesthetic problem may be solved by adopting the fragmentary approach of picking
favorite passages singular for their strength or beauty. But the reputation of The Prelude does not stand or
fall as measured against the canon of uninterrupted beauty alone. Fortunately, it is the thematic
framework behind the poem that holds the greatest lasting reward for the reader. The outstanding virtue
of The Prelude is its imaginative interpretation of nature. For Wordsworth, nature forms a cosmic order of
which the material world is one manifestation and the moral world is another. Usually, in such a view,
either mind or matter must have the upper hand. From the fanciful, mechanistic interpretation of nature in
his youth, he moved in maturity to a vitalist view in which mind transcended the physical world and in
which a universal spirit provided the ultimate motivation for all things, as exemplified in universal,
natural law. This is as close as he comes to building a philosophical system. And it is just this long and
painful transition that is related in The Prelude. What Wordsworth offers is not a great philosophical
system. He presents an emancipatory attitude toward life and toward art. He forever examines experience.
Nothing in the world is so trivial or commonplace that it cannot be a stimulus for the mind. No thought,
no matter how pedestrian or contemptuous it may at first seem, is to be excluded from the realm of
poetry.
T.S. Eliot's Prufrock
So, we're learning about the The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. And let's get it out right now: Prufrock.
That's kind of a silly name, right. Say it a couple times - Prufrock, Prufrock, Prufrock. Okay I think we're
good now.
This is a poem, and it's a pretty significant poem by T.S. Eliot. As a poem, it's awesome, short and
accessible. I recommend it - for T.S. Eliot, it's a key thing to read. Now, this is his first poem that was
published in a non-school journal setting, so it was his first big break poem. It was published in 1915, and
it's interesting, since it was while he was still living in America in 1914 before he moved to Britain.
Prufrock is in a city, and a lot of critics think it might be in Boston. There isn't anything specific that hints
at that location, but basically, this is an American poem.
What happens in this poem is we follow around the speaker or narrator as he wanders around town. He
also wanders through his memories. One of my favorite lines that really sums up the poem is 'I've
measured out my life in coffee spoons.' Think about what that means; it's about looking back and
assessing but using this really inadequate tool. It gives a sense of this mundane existence, this
unremarkable life, but it's also a really beautiful line of poetry. It uses this beautiful imagery to describe a
mundane thing, which is something that keep coming up in Prufrock but also throughout T.S. Eliot's
poetry in general: the elevation of the normal or decrepit through beautiful language. It's really a non-
linear plot; we just get his thoughts as he goes.

Modernism
I mentioned earlier in the overview of Modernism, that Modernism is concerned with voices and
consciousness as well as placing speakers or multiple speakers. This poem really begins in a way that
might make you uncomfortable as a reader, since you're not really sure where you stand in relation to this
voice that is speaking to you. And the poem begins like this:
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells
First off, who is you and I? Is it you as the reader or someone else off-stage who he's addressing? We
don't know, so we're already uncomfortable. We're not sure where we stand. And this transition that he
puts - when the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table - that's not
something you'd expect right after against the sky. It sets the tone, and it's really jarring transition, a
jarring simile (that's when you compare something using the word 'like'). This opening tells us that, while
we may think we're comfortable touring the city with this guy, there is a characterization with the cheap
one-night hotels and half-deserted streets - that's all fine, but that opening tells us that we're not in Kansas
anymore. We're going to have a contrast between what we expect and what we're getting throughout the
poem - the romanticized sky and then the patient etherized upon the table. There's that basic discomfort
along with the 'you and I' and not knowing who the 'you and I' is.

Poem Features
Some other things to keep in mind - this poem is written in free verse, since it doesn't have any set length
or set rhyme scheme. It's kind of just like whatever Eliot felt like writing. At the same time, it has these
half-rhymes and these internal rhymes even though there's no real structure. A really cool example of that
is these three lines:
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea
You can see there all of these -isions. Some of them are at the end of the line, and some of them, like
visions and revisions, are in the middle of the line. And taking of a toast and tea has no -isions at all. The
irregular sprinkling of it at the end and throughout the middle is really characteristic of early Eliot. You
see that throughout the poem.
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Journey of the Magi: Thomas Sterne Eliot - Summary and Critical Analysis
The poem Journey of the Magi is based on the theme of the Bible. It is full of religious feeling. The visit
of the Three Wise Men of East to Palestine at the time of Christ's birth has been described in a very
realistic way. The wise men started their journey in the extreme cold of the winter to reach the place of
Christ's birth to offer presents to him.

Thomas Sterne Eliot

In the course of their journey they got many hardships and suffering. In spite of this they continued their
journey throughout the night. In the way they did not get shelter and food. The snowy way made their
camel tired. The idea of beautiful girls who were not present to entertain them is also very imaginative
and artistic. Again the non co-operation of people in the way is also very heart-touching. The wise men
did not get any help from the people of cities and town. They were hostile and unfriendly to them. This
shows that those people lacked farsightedness about the importance of Christ's birth.

In the course of a journey, they saw a temperate valley with natural vegetation and beauty which lessened
their tiredness. This is full of nature description and proves that Eliot was a nature poet also. The sounds
of the stream and water-mill and smell of vegetation were very pleasant to the Magi and the readers. The
white horse galloped in the meadow is also very symbolic and it points out the speed of the horse with his
rider. The Magi reached a tavern where they did not get co-operation of those six men who were busy in
gambling society. The Magi reached their destination and offered their present to Christ. This is a
religious achievement of T.S. Eliot.

The poet wants to emphasize that the birth and death of Christ were different from the common people.
His birth was hard and bitter agony of the human race, like death. He was crucified for the redemption of
humanity from sins and bondages. The description of three trees on the low sky symbolizes the future
Crucifixion of Christ because he was crucified near the three trees. The poet takes a sense of relief and
appreciates the quality of Christ and his extraordinary death. The language of the poem is very measured.
The poet has achieved grand success as an artist. The poem is very symbolic and full of religious touch.

"Journey of the Magi" is an allegory of the spiritual journey in which the flesh still craves for sensual
enjoyment. The details of the journey of the three wise men from the east bound for Jerusalem to honor
the newborn Jesus are the "objective correlatives" of the spiritual experiences of the journey from the
kingdom of the world to the kingdom of heaven, which entails the death of the old physical self and the
birth of a new spiritual one. It is a long hazardous journey in "the worst time of the year" in the "very
dead of winter", when the body needs protection and seeks sensual pleasure.

The Magi are a composite symbol of the spiritual quest. While one of them reminisces the journey
undertaken by them he longingly recollects their indulgence in sensual pleasure. He says that while they
were going to Emmaus, they felt drawn to the fleshly enjoyments, the lack of which tortured them and in
such a moment of spiritual crisis, they regretted to have obeyed the call of the spirit.

However, the quester survives the long journey in the night and at dawn he is in a "temperate valley"
where everything is pleasant. It is the dawn of spiritual exhilaration; the different aspects of nature signify
the new images of life; the "running stream" symbolizes the rhythmic flow of life; the "water-mill beating
the darkness" suggests the doubt being driven away; the galloping away of "the white horse" in the
meadow symbolizes upward movement of the spirit. At this stage the quester becomes conscious of the
betrayal of the man of belief at the hands of those who are without any belief. In this kingdom of spirit he
visualizes the three cross on Calvary, one of Christ and the other two of the two "male-factors". He also
has the vision of Christ riding a white horse and of Judas betraying Christ for thirty pieces of silver, and
the Roman dicing for the robes of Christ after the Crucifixion. These memories of the misdeeds of men
without belief engage his mind for a while and he realized that the secret of his quest is not revealed to
him as yet and so he continues his exploration. At the end of the day he finds himself in a place from
where he looks back to the region he has traversed and feels satisfied with the advance he has made.

The positive gain of the journey is the affirmation of the belief that for the spiritual rejuvenation the
overcoming of the sensual aspect of life is essential. "Journey of the Magi" is inspired by the story in the
Gospel according to St. Matthew. One of the Magi recounts the arduous journey they undertook to
witness the Birth which was 'hard and bitter agony' for them. The journey is beset with the same kinds of
temptations as are hinted at in "Ash Wednesday", and similar regrets for the summer palaces or slopes,
the terraces, and the silken girls bringing sherbet. The New Birth does not bring unalloyed joy because the
transition from the old to the new is accompanied by pain. It is a kind of experience referred to by Jung in
his Psychological Types: 'The birth of the deliverer is equivalent to a great catastrophe since a new and
powerful life issues forth just when no life or force or new development was anticipated'.

- See more at: http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/journey-of-the-

magi.html#.VqdcZZp95kg
Our Hunting Fathers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Our Hunting Fathers, Op. 8, is an orchestral song-cycle by Benjamin Britten, first performed in 1936. Its
text, assembled and partly written by W. H. Auden, with a pacifist slant, puzzled audiences at the
premiere, and the work has never achieved the popularity of the composer's later orchestral song-
cycles, Les Illuminations, the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Stringsand the Nocturne.

Background[edit]
In the mid-1930s Britten was employed by the GPO Film Unit, composing music for documentary films.
Also working for the unit was the poet and critic W. H. Auden, with whom Britten collaborated on the
films Coal Face (1935) and Night Mail(1936). Auden was something of a mentor to the young Britten,
encouraging him to widen his aesthetic, intellectual and political horizons. [1]
Britten received a commission to compose a work involving orchestra for the 1936 Norfolk and Norwich
Triennial Music Festival. Auden assembled the text for an orchestral song cycle, writing some of it and
adapting other sections from existing poems. The work, described as a "symphonic cycle for high voice
and orchestra", was composed between May and July 1936 and titled Our Hunting Fathers.[2]
On 19 September 1936, less than a week before the premiere, Britten rehearsed the work with
the soprano Sophie Wyssand the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the loft at Covent Garden. Britten
afterwards described the rehearsal as "the most catastrophic evening of my life" which left him "feeling
pretty suicidal".[3] According to Sophie Wyss, the "members of the orchestra were not used to that kind of
music and played about disgracefully. When the reference to rats came in the score they ran around
pretending they were chasing rats on the floor!"[4] Ralph Vaughan Williams, who was present, reproved
the orchestra, with the result, Wyss recalls, that the players "pulled themselves together" in time for the
next rehearsal held in Norwich on 21 September.[5]

Premiere and reception[edit]

The premiere was given at the 34th Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Musical Festival on 25 September
1936, conducted by the composer.[6] The performance went without mishap,[7] leaving "most of the
audience", according to Britten, "very interested if bewildered". [6] The press reviews ranged "from
flattering & slightly bewildered (D. Tel.) - to reprehension & disapproving (Times)". [8]
Richard Capell in The Daily Telegraph wrote:
It is Puck-like music, fantastically nimble and coruscating, having, like Puck, the advantage, if sheer will-
of-the-wispness of movement and effect is the kind of activity wanted, of being without flesh or bones.
The general impression is a kind of orchestral prank in which the instruments lead a distracted human
voice into one embarrassing position after another. The voice in question belonged to clever Sophie
Wyss, a Swiss singer, who before she performs the piece again should be coached in some of the niceties
of English, for instance, the difference between the pronunciation of 'Ay' and 'Aye'. [9]
The reviewer in The Observer, comparing the piece unfavourably with Vaughan Williams's Five Tudor
Portraits which had been premiered at the festival that same day, wrote:
After Vaughan Williams, struggling in the thicket of his poetic fancies, even in so bluff a work, to come
upon Benjamin Britten, lightly unburdening himself of dire nonsense, was a curious experience. Since,
however, those parts which W. H. Auden has directly contributed to the text of Our Hunting
Fathers remain obscure after a tenth reading, judgment of Mr Britten's composition as a whole would be
unfair. But it did seem, all things considered, that what he had done was hardly worth doing, and that,
having done it, he would have served his reputation better had he remained like the hunting fathers at the
end of Auden's text (or is it the present generation?—or the lion?) anonymous.[10]
The Times was less severe, but its critic made his dislike of the piece discreetly clear.
It was kindly received, either because the composer is the youngest of the products of East Anglia
represented here, or because he so evidently knows exactly what sort of sound he wants to make at every
moment, or because his singer, Miss Sophie Wyss, showed herself almost as clever as he is, or because
his audience shares with him some sense of music or of humour, or both, to which we are strangers. …
Though only now 23 he is no newcomer. His earlier works have made their mark, and perhaps this one
will; or, if it is just a stage to be got through, we wish him safely and quickly through it. [11]
Although Britten's music had, as a biographer put it, "bizarre new sounds" calculated to discomfit an
audience, most of the opprobrium seems to have been directed at Auden's text. [12] Ostensibly about man's
relationship with animals it is a not very deeply disguised tract about man's relationship with man, from a
left-wing, pacifist viewpoint.[2]
In April 1937 the BBC broadcast a performance of the work with Wyss and the BBC Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult;[13] the cycle was not performed again until 1950. The analyst
Lloyd Moore commented in 2004 that even latterly the work is seldom heard in the concert-hall and
"must qualify as one of the most neglected of Britten's major works".[2]

Structure[edit]
The work lasts about half an hour in performance.[2] It is in five sections:

1. Prologue – words by Auden

2. Rats Away! – anonymous, updated by Auden
3. Messalina – anonymous
4. Hawking for the Partridge (Dance of Death) – words by Thomas Ravenscroft
5. Epilogue – words by Auden.
The Prologue is in a form akin to recitative and introduces the cycle's musical motto, described by Moore
as "a descending major triad climbing back to the minor third". "Rats Away!" is an agitated, shrill section,
demanding vocal virtuosity from the soloist, who is gradually overwhelmed by the orchestra, its music
suggesting the scurrying of rats.[2]
The third section, "Messalina", is a lyrical elegy for a dead monkey, with a succession of solos for flute,
oboe, clarinet and saxophone. The fourth section, "Hawking for the Partridge" (subtitled Dance of Death)
follows without a break, the soloist reciting the names of the dogs joining in the hunt. In Moore's words,
"The catch itself is marked by a fortissimo unison on the muted brass, after which the soprano isolates the
two names 'German, Jew', signifying unambiguously who is the hunter and who the hunted."[2]
The work ends with an Epilogue and Funeral March, disrupted by a repetitive motif on the xylophone,
bringing the cycle to an equivocal and ambiguous conclusion.[2]

W. H. Auden: Poems Summary and Analysis of "Spain"

The poem begins, “Yesterday the past.” It was yesterday that the trade routes sprang up and the counting-
frame and the cromlech were used. Yesterday there was insurance and the divination of water and the
creation of the clock and the taming of horses; it was “the bustling world of the navigators.” Yesterday
myths of fairies and giants were destroyed, and chapels were built in the forest. Angels and gargoyles
were carved. Heretics were put on trial, and feuds over theology took place. Today, though: “the
struggle.”

Yesterday was the belief in the perfection of the Greeks, the prayer to the sunset, and the “adoration of
madmen.” Today the struggle.

The poet whispers in the pines and the waterfall and the crags, calling for his vision and for the “luck of
the sailor.” The investigator uses his instruments and analyzes bacteria or the planets; he inquires and
inquires. The poor live in their barren cottages and drop the paper to the floor, asking for “History the
operator, the / Organiser” to be revealed.

The nations combine the individual cries, calling to History. Since History or Time has intervened before,
it should descend and intervene again, regardless of what form it takes. If this spirit even answers, it has
replied that it is not actually “the mover”—History is “whatever you do.” It will do what the nations and
individuals choose. In this, History is “your choice, your decision. Yes, I am Spain.”

Many people heard this throughout the peninsulas and plains, or in the islands or in the cities. Hearing
this they migrated like “gulls or the seeds of a flower.” They clung to the express trains and floated over
the seas and walked the passes, all presenting their lives.

Spain is a dry square, snipped from Africa and welded to Europe. This is where “our thoughts have
bodies” and “Madrid is the heart.” Our fears and greed blossom into instruments of war, our friendships
into an army.

Tomorrow, there is, perhaps, the future. There will be research into consciousness and fatigue and
radiation, rediscovery of love and the arts, local politics, and quotidian life. Today, though, is the struggle.
Tomorrow will have young poets, walks by the lake, bicycle races. Today is the struggle.

Today the chances of death are high, and it is necessary to accept guilt for murder. Powers are expended
over the map, and everything is full of “makeshift consolations” like jokes and cigarettes and the
“fumbled and unsatisfactory embrace before hurting.” The stars are dead, the animals are gone, and we
only have ourselves and our short day. Those who lose the battle will receive nothing from History except
an “Alas.”

Analysis
“Spain,” one of Auden’s longest and most complicated poems, is beautiful and compelling. Written in
1937 after his visit to Spain, it addresses the Spanish Civil War. The first version Auden wrote was
published as a pamphlet in 1937 (its proceeds went to the war effort), and the second version, revised
slightly, was included in Another Time in 1940. Auden would later repudiate this poem, as he did with
“September 1, 1939,” as “dishonest.”
Auden had gone to Spain as a volunteer, where he served as an ambulance driver, wanting to see the
terrors and thrills of war firsthand. The civil war was split between the Republicans and Generalissimo
Francisco Franco’s Fascist forces. Franco was a tyrannical brute in the same fashion as Hitler and
Mussolini. Auden had written in 1936 to his close friend E.R. Dodds, “I am not one of those who believe
that poetry need or even should be directly political. But in a critical period such as ours, I do believe that
the poet must have direct knowledge of the major political events.” As a leftist American intellectual,
Auden supported the Republicans, but he witnessed the brutality of both sides.
The poem speaks of three times: yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It begins with Spain’s past, invoking
the taming of the wilderness, the exploration and conquest, the various inventions, the ridding of
medieval myths in favor of Christianity, the Spanish Inquisition as “the trial of heretics among the
columns of stone,”, the growth of industry and modernity, the espousal of Greek perfection, and the
“death of the hero.” These lines mark the multifaceted growth of Spanish civilization as intellectual,
religious, and artistic values were constructed and celebrated.

But yesterday is gone and, as the poem repeats several times without a verb, “To-day the struggle.” There
are several figures in the today of the poem: the poet, who wants vision to contemplate and write of this
terror; the scientist, who spends his time looking under a microscope or into a telescope but thinks of the
lives of his friends; the poor people in their cold, cheerless homes thinking of how “Our day is our loss.”
The people of Spain cry out. The greatness of Spain’s early days, with its military and its city-state, are
now in crisis. Life can only claim that it cannot do anything to move events; life is the simple things, such
as marriage or funny stories or business voices. Spain was formed from people migrating to this jagged
peninsula “nipped off from hot / Africa, soldered so crudely to inventive Europe,” a mix of African and
European influences. Now people are filled with fear, and moments of tenderness and love and friendship
are carried out during war.

The poem then turns to the future, presented as a hopeful time, filled with research, enlarging of
consciousness, romance and love, music and art and theater, poetry, bicycle races, peaceful walks. Note
the imagery of “poets exploding like bombs”—the poem imagines a future without bombs but with poets.

The 26 four-line stanzas in the poem are not rhymed. The third line of most stanzas is noticeably shorter
than the other lines. Perhaps it is not too much of a stretch to imagine the structure of each stanza as
symbolizing past, present, and future, with the momentary present symbolized by the third line
sandwiched between, and not rhyming with, the other periods.

The image of a pleasant future is quickly swallowed back up into the fierce present of today. Today death
and murder are realities, and there are very few things that make life worth living. Even an embrace has to
be curtailed before it hurts the recipient. The poem ends on a very bleak note; the glorious tomorrow has
never seemed farther away. Indeed, “the stars are dead. The animals will not look.” The people are “left
alone with our day,” and “time is short.” There is neither help nor hope from History, which depends on
how the people who are in it will direct it. As scholar SeomByeol Song writes, “the poem, instead of
encouraging ‘today’ to switch over to [a] better state, or presenting a concrete breakthrough, stops on the
problematic situation...the future is not worth achieving: even the stars and animals will not prove it.”
Expectations for the future, in these conditions, are ambivalent. Spain is in crisis; it had a pleasant past; it
may or may not have a pleasant future.

No Dominion by Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas was one of the eminent writers of the twentieth century. He believed that writing was a
kind of self-discovery. This belief of his was even reflected in his writings and his works remained
distinctly personal, having metaphorical language, aesthetic imageries and psychological details. His
writings were not only personal but had worldly themes like birth, death, love and religion.

“And Death Shall Have No Dominion” by Dylan Thomas celebrates the undying and everlasting strength
of the human spirit. It is through this spirit that humans can claim victory over death and ‘death shall have
no dominion.’ The poet believed that the dead are never lost to us but they live on through the beauty of
their memory and spirit. The struggle does not end, it continues.

SUMMARY:
Stanza 1:
Each stanza begins and ends with the title of the poem, ‘And Death Shall Have No Dominion.” In the first
stanza, the poet conveys that in death, all are one. Race and skin color no longer have any meaning when
a person dies. The dead body reunites with nature. In death, everyone is naked and shall be one. There’s
no discrimination in death. The poet goes on to say that after death, men become part of constellations,
something bigger than he was, when he was alive. Though the dead men’s bones are naked, they shall be
clothed in eternal glory and shall have stars at their elbows and feet. In the following lines, the poet says
that though the men will go mad they will attain sanity. Those who have drowned in the sea of human
sorrow shall rise again and taste joy. Moreover, lovers who were lost will be united after death. Finally he
uses the final lines, ‘and death shall have no dominion.’

Stanza 2:
The second stanza of ‘And Death Shall Have No Dominion’ takes the reader to a graveyard which is
located on the sea floor. The poet says that one can find the souls of the sailors or the others who lost their
lives in the sea. According to him, these people died courageously. Their lives have tortured them, the
wheel of time has tested them but none of these could break them. Faith has been cracked in two and
unicorn evils will put their horns through them. The ‘unicorn’ is an ancient mythical creature, sometimes
used to symbolize Christ or God. Unicorn horns are considered as harder than diamonds and can
neutralize poison. Their tears can heal wounds both of physical and mental nature. Again the stanza ends
with the lines, ‘and death shall have no dominion’ representing the triumph and main theme of the poem.

Stanza 3:
The final stanza talks about the land, along the seashore. The poet begins the final stanza by saying that
the dead are no longer disturbed by the materialistic world and the physical elements that made up their
homes. Gulls are sea birds which will no longer cry at their ears; they will not be able to hear the loud
noises made by waves. Yet new life will spring up, an intrepid life like a flower that ‘lifts its head to
blows of the rain.’ Their innocence shall burst through like daisies. Their innocence ultimately wins over
the sun and breaks it down. The phrase ‘heads of the characters hammer through daisies’ hints at the
characters of those dead people who hammer through pain until innocence breaks them. The daisy blooms
as dawn breaks, symbolizing the burst of innocence. In the same way, death becomes powerless as
humanity regains purity and recollects hope, disregarding pain and hatred. In this way, death can be
overcome and ‘death shall have no dominion.’

ANALYSIS:
Theme: The repetition of the lines, ‘And death shall have no dominion’ reinforces the theme of the poem.
The message rendered was to attain victory over death and it is even used as the title of the poem. By
repeating the lines at the beginning and end of each stanza, the poem has developed a nice structure and a
message to the readers. The first stanza idealizes mankind, the second emphasis on God and suffering
while the third focuses on nature.

The poem is structured into three stanzas each containing ten lines. The poem is composed in near rhyme.
Near rhyming mean words that come near rhyming but do not really rhyme. It is also known as imperfect
rhyme.

Poetic devices in “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” included pun, paradox, repetition, alliteration,
metaphors and contrast.
PUN: An example of pun is found in line 12. ‘Windily’ means both the movement of the sea and also the
shroud in which the dead are buried in the sea.
PARADOX: ‘Unicorn evils through’ is an example of paradox because unicorn is a symbol of Christ and
has nothing to do with evil. ‘Though they go mad, they shall be sane’ is also an example of paradox.
REPETITION: The most distinct repetition is ‘and death shall have no dominion’ which is repeated in
every stanza, marks the most important idea of the poem. The repetition of the word ‘though’ is repeated
in the first stanza reinforces the basic theme and provides a secure structure.
ALLITERATION: Alliteration is the close repetition of the consonant sounds at the beginning of words
to facilitate narration. ‘Though lovers be lost love shall not’ is a fine example of alliteration.
METAPHOR: A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two things but is not clearly stated.
‘Faith in their hands shall snap in two.’ In this line, the poet has used a metaphor to compare faith with a
wooden stick.
IMAGERY: Images of sea, torture and biblical characters are used throughout the poem. Sea imagery is
found in the first stanza by depicting that the dead sank in the sea and rose again. In the second stanza,
‘windings of the sea’ is an image of the sea itself. Sound of ‘gulls’ and ‘waves’ are examples of sound
imagery. Biblical imagery is found by describing the rise of the dead symbolizing Christ’s Revelation.
The use of unicorn, the mythical sea creature is also an example of biblical imagery. ‘Twisting on racks
when sinews give way, strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break’ brings out an image of the human
body of muscles and bones in pain.

The main idea of the poem, ‘And Death Shall Have No Dominion’ is that we should not let the fear of
death control our lives. Although we are mortal, we will eventually be redeemed in the end. The poet
makes a striking affirmation about life and death.