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In C. K. Williams' "Grief," the speaker explores the all too common experience of losing a loved one. The speaker describes the pain involved in sitting helplessly by, only able to watch, while another human being slowly withdraws into death. The poem "Grief," like many of C.K. Williams' poems, is a maelstrom of memories, thoughts, emotions, and other human experiences. In this particular poem, the speaker is torn by the slow death of his elderly mother. His attempts to console himself and his family leads him to believe that she has lived a full life, and is now released from her suffering, headed toward a place of serenity and repose. How does this phrase "peace of the earth," (32) suggest a release from the suffering of dying?

In the poem entitled "Grief," by C. K. Williams, the reader is taken through one man's painful experience of watching his mother's slow death. Williams is renowned for his ability to capture the emotions and concepts of the human spirit. Perhaps The Boston Globe's critic, Jonathan Aaron, put it best in his review, stating:

A matchless explorer of the burdens of consciousness, C. K. Williams has always written brilliantly about

In this poem, Williams also focuses on the symbolism of life and death in association with the word earth. In reality, the word earth denotes soil. Yet In all practicality, this reference to the soil in which the dead are interred has, however, a more symbolic meaning -- the sphere of mortal life. The mind frame that Williams sets is one where the earth is a mortal world in which physical suffering exists and the body is unprotected against it. Eventually the body gives way to death, and the final outcome of the "mortal earth" is a death that delivers us from suffering into peace. Many religions identify earth with the human body and its origin. The word earth also literally means the mortal human body, and in faiths such as the Christian tradition, man is believed to have been borne of ashes [earth], and to ashes he will return.

Throughout the poem, the speaker attempts to identify and understand exactly what grief is. His mother's suffering torments him, and when she finally comes to death she enters the peace of the earth. The word peace means a state of tranquillity of quiet. A state of such tranquillity and quiet, like that which is associated with death. Wh

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Approximate Word count = 798
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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