Reflection:
Death is a
topic that can arise any time in anyone’s life, everyone has so many people
that they interact with that the chances of facing death is as common as
someone having a child. Each person will deal with death in different ways.
Some people even deal with death in different people different ways, I know I certainly
do. Death for me is a touchy
subject because I have lost many who were close to me. These two poems give
different views of death that I had never really though about, I thought they
were interesting and I was glad that I could understand and interoperate the
poems.
Essay:
Everyone views death differently; one may think it’s a release
while another may think that of death as the end to something great. Everybody
thinks about death in different ways and no way is right or wrong. Death is also a common thought in
everybody’s mind. In the poems “Suicide Note” by Langston Hughes and “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy are
both addressing death but with different views and feelings; these authors use
tone, diction and imagery to describe the different views of death; not being
afraid of death or dying and death isn’t in ones hands but comes when it comes.
There are
different tones in each poem and both addressing opinions about death. “Suicide Note” by Langston Hughes has a
relaxing or inviting tone; this is shown when in the poem says, “Asked me” and
“a kiss.” Both of those two quotes show the tone of being comforted or an
inviting feeling of the thought of death and not being afraid to die because
once you die you can be rid of all your problems and pain. While in “The Man He Killed” by Thomas
Hardy has a tone of anger or upset and regret. “But ranged as infantry, And
staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place,”
This quote shows the anger and upset feelings in the poem as he has to shoot
this man, just because he is his enemy not because he has anything against him.
“ I shot him dead because—Because he was my foe, Just so: my foe of course he
was.” This is where the tone turns
into regret because he didn’t know man nor did he know his life. These two
quote from “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy show that the author uses these
tones to show that his view of death is that life shouldn’t end that way, not
because of a feud, not by someone else, and that everyone deserves a life even
if you don’t know him. Diction in these poems helps understand the tones.
Diction is also used in each poem to address the viewpoints of
death. In “Suicide Note” by Langston Hughes diction is used to show how death
is inviting and will relive a person of all pain. Using the words “calm”, “Cool
face” and “a kiss” in the poem shows those themes. Calm and cool face have a
reliving and relaxing thought and a kiss shows that the pain and problems in
life will all go away once they have gone into the river/ died. “The Man He
Killed” by Thomas Hardy used diction to show the viewpoint that death isn’t
something someone can choose nor can you take someone’s life away. This is shown
in the poem by using the words “my foe”, “no other reason” and “shoot a fellow
down.” My foe and no other reason
give off a feeling of not wanting to, or not having a compelling reason to kill
the other man, and shoot a fellow down shows that there was no connection to
the other man who was shot; shooting him was a distant feeling. He shot the man
because he has to not because he wanted to. Tone and diction helps provide
imagery in each poem.
Imagery is also a big part of understanding the attitudes
towards death in each of the poems. In the “Suicide Note” by Langston Hughes it
says “Cool face of the river” and that paints a great image, which is welcoming
and inviting this is because it is a cool face, with no worries in the river.
This further backs up that the river is inviting and your troubles will go away
once you have gone in the river. While in “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy they also
use imagery to depict a different feeling of death. “Staring face to face” and
“shot him dead” paints the picture of how they were staring face to face and
didn’t want to kill one or the other, but he had to because it was his enemy
even if he didn’t want to take his life. Shot him dead also shows that taking
this mans life didn’t make him feel good, it made him feel bad, something he
shouldn’t have done. Tone, diction and imagery all help reveal the authors
attitudes towards death in each of the poems.
These authors have different views on death and portray them in
different ways. But they both use tone, diction, and imagery to portray
their different views on death.
Hughes uses a comforting tone and inviting theme in his poem to show that death
is something that will rid you of pain and problems. Hardy thinks differently,
his poem portrays a view that nobody should have to die until it’s his or her
own time, you can’t play game maker for someone else.
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