Running head: THE TERMINATION OF LIFE !

The Termination of Life

Chuthasita Thaebanpakul 1108

5861026

Mahidol University International Demonstration School

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Are you scared of death? Human is scared of the death but naturally, every life on the Earth

have to reach the termination. Edgar Allen Poe, an american poet, writer, and critic was famous in

writing literature about horror and mystery. He was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston,

Massachusetts, United States. He was the one who gave birth to the modern detective story during

his early life and earn the nickname "Father of the Detective Story. At first, he wrote a lot of

detective short stories and fictions until the publication of The Raven in 1845 which makes him

found out his common theme of poems which is death and loss. This publication led him become

more famous and it was considered as the best literary work of his career. At the very end of his

lifetime, he changed his writing style to be an essay. He passed away on October 7, 1849,

Baltimore, Maryland, United States as mysterious death. However, writing poems throughout Poes

life, a lot of poetics devices are used to let readers begin to sense and think as characters in the

poem do and to have better understanding of mood. Since his main theme in writing poems is death,

therefore, Poe used the poetic devices of metaphor in A Dream Within a Dream, symbol in The

City in the Sea, and repetition in Lenore to emphasise that death is inescapable.

In the A Dream Within a Dream, Poe affirms the death is inescapable by using the poetic

device of metaphor, a word or phrase that is applied to an object or action. The poem contains of

two stanzas which first stanza is a point of view of the narrator who needs to be parted from his

lover while the second stanza describe the narrator while he is on a beach and grasping a handful of

sand in his hand. The setting of the second stanza is the beach which used to discuss the death and

decay.

(Poe, 1849):

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand

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How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

These lines describe how the sand that the narrator is holding in his hand gradually creep and fall

out. In this case, grains of the golden sand represents the lovers time that gradually disappears

every second the same as when time has passed, the sand in his hand slowly fall out and all

disappear. Therefore, Poe underlines that everyone has the limitation of lifetime, we cannot live

with a lover forever. Someday, we will need to be parted from them by death and we absolutely

cannot escape from that. Furthermore, another poetic device that Poe uses in writing The City in the

Sea to emphasise the idea that human will absolutely reach death will be analysed in the following

paragraph.

In The City in the Sea, the poetic device of symbol is used to emphasise that the death is

unavoidable. This poem is focussing on the influences of death to the people in the city in the way

that how the personified death rules the city. As we are reading the poem, there are a lot of words

are used to present how big of death in the city is.

(Poe, 1831):

Lo! Death has reared himself a throne

In a strange city lying alone

Far down within the dim West,

From these lines, the dim west is used to symbolise death that exist in the weird city. However, the

word the dim West was used to symbolise death. Poe is telling that everybody in the city have

been being ruled by the personified death and they absolutely cannot escape from it. Together with
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the word throne that symbolises a king chair which means the death has a huge power in this city.

Therefore, at the end , personified death is the one who judge people which showing no matter what

happens they need to face the death anyway and it cannot be avoided. In the following paragraph,

the fact that death is inevitable will be emphasised by using poetic device of repetition.

Poe uses the poetic device of repetition to indicate the truth that human cannot escape from

death in Lenore. Repetition is using the same words or same phrases many time in order to make

an idea of poem clearer. In Lenore, there is the spirit of young woman who dominates the

narration. She already died and doesn't have an appearance. She has a lover whose name is Guy de

Vere. Guy de Vere has his own two stanzas of monologue in this poem which the main idea is that

he hopes to meet his lover in a heaven again.

(Poe, 1843):

An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young--

A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.

The repetition of died so young is repeated at the last two lines of the first stanza. It emphasises

that she is a dear child who dies in her youth. However, this phrase also connects to Poes real life

about his wife that they got marry to each other when she was at a young age. Although, the woman

in the poem dies at a very young age which showing that death cannot be predicted and can happens

anytime. Therefore, it conveys that we never know when will we going to reach that point in life.

As the man hopes that he could meet his lover in a heaven which also shows that he knows death

will surely happen to him.

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In conclusion, Poe uses the poetic devices of metaphor, symbol, and repetition in writing

poems to emphasise that death is inevitable. In A Dream Within a Dream, Poe uses the word

Grains of the golden sand which metaphorises that human has a limitation of lifetime and its

always lessened by time passing as sand that gradually fall out of the narrators hand. Moreover, he

used the word the dim west to symbolise death in The City in the Sea which people in the poem

are ruled by personified death. At the end, every life will face death since it is the one who will

judge them. Lastly, the poetic device of repetition is used in Lenore by repeating the word died

so young to emphasise that the woman dies too early. The poem is telling that death can happens to

us anytime whether you are youth, adult, or older. These analyzations support the idea that human

has a limitation of lifetime to live in this world. No matter what happens, we should do whatever we

want and enjoy every single day of our lives before we will be going to reach the termination.
 Reference

Biography.com Editors (2017, May 2). Edgar Allan Poe biography.com. Retrieved from https://

www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160

Poe, E. A. (2002, December 31). Lenore. Retrieved from https://

www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-dream-within-a-dream/

Poe, E. A. (2012, January 19). The City In The Sea. Retrieved from https://

www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-city-in-the-sea-2/

Poe, E. A. (2014, December 19). A Dream Within A Dream. Retrieved from https://

www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-dream-within-a-dream/