To live, especially with comfort and respect, can often be, and is usually, a difficult as well as unavoidable task. Dying can be viewed in much the same way. Although you sometimes have a choice, often death is sudden and miserable and can end a life with little or no grace. I think Randall Jarrell would agree with me on this point. In his poem "The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner" Jarrell ex

"We are poor passing facts" according to Robert Lowell. This is one more way in which death is looked at. Although his poem "Epilogue" is not thematically aimed towards death, this one statement is cohesive with Marianne Moore's "A Grave." People die everyday. Deaths are ignored everyday. In a sense we are all just "passing facts." Even if relatively few people notice that we die, it will be recorded somewhere and probably ready sometime again in the future. "A Grave" speaks candidly about how the sea is a grave that is often defiled without realization. "The fish no longer investigate them for their bones have not lasted" is an expression of this. That spot is on the ocean floor where I died and that spot is also where a shark swam this morning oblivious to my grave. This is sad, but not always. My death should not ruin somebody's or everybody else's life. Death results in some grieving but for the most part, most of the population carries on with their everyday lives.

As dark of a topic as it is, death is still interesting and can provide mysterious as well as engaging themes in poetry. These poems and topics were all related in at least a minor way and provide important views on what death is and how it is, can be, or should be reacted to.

This was brought up in the words and ideas of several of the poets we read. Each gave their own interesting twist to what they thought life was when compared or shown in accordance with death and dying. I have already shown that certain poets believe that death is an easy thing to come by, so now how would that relate to our lives? Theodore Roethke discusses this in his poem "The Waking." The phrase, "I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow" is repeated several times throughout the poem. This can imply several things. To "wake" is probably synonymous with "to live" and "to sleep" is probably related to "to die." If you take your waking slow I would think you would live longer. If you took your waking fast (or lived a "fast" life) I would think that he meant it would lead to a faster or earlier death. Does this mean live life to the fullest? Probably, but not with the same connotation as is common in contemporary America. I think it is saying to live without consideration of death. But that's where it gets complicated. Roethke is not saying to live recklessly, or over indulge, or to engage in gluttonous lifestyle, he is saying to live conservatively but not to let death consume your anxieties. Deat

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1680
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)