Tag Archives: Death Poetry

“Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens's famous declaration from "Sunday Morning" reconsiders death as vital to a full life

In a recent interview with SevenPonds, Terri Daniel encourages us to imagine death as catalyst for new growth, new perspective, new knowledge, or whatever an individual accepts as a gift buried in a loss. Mortality does not have to dampen … Continue reading

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“Sonnet” by Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop's images in "Sonnet" makes the end of life a release into joy

Is the end of life best imagined as a climactic release? Although not explicitly about death, Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “Sonnet” all but dramatizes it as a swift vault from captivity to liberation as the poem depicts the soul’s gleeful escape from “caught” (1) … Continue reading

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”Waking or asleep, / Thou of death must deem / Things more true and deep / Than we mortals dream, / Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?”

–Percy Bysshe Shelley, from "To a Skylark"

Read the full poem here. More from A Right of Passage: Memorial Songs: “Casimir Pulaski Day” by Sufjan Stevens  “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”  Memorial … Continue reading

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”Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I have a call.”

- Sylvia Plath

Read the entire poem, “Lady Lazarus”, here. More in “A Rite of Passage”: 

Memorial Music: “Kettering” by The Antlers “If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One’s destination is never a … Continue reading

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“Christmas Tree” by James Merrill

James Merrill writes on his own end of life through the perspective of a Christmas tree

Wound in lights, heavy with ornaments and heirlooms, photos of children now grown up or parents no longer here, the Christmas tree brightens the living room. It fills the floor with needles and scents the air with pine. Becomes a … Continue reading

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“Prospice” by Robert Browning

Robert Browning's poem views dying as a victory

Back in February I wrote about a love sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Today, I’m analyzing a poem by her husband, Robert Browning, who was also a famous poet. The poem is called “Prospice,” which is a Latin term meaning … Continue reading

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