Example Of Death, Nature And Apocalypse: Analysis Of Three Poems Literature Review

In “We are Seven” by William Wordsworth, the narrator begins by asking if a young girl, that is so full of life, could possibly know anything about the hard realities of death, arguing she did not know death. The poet narrator asks the rustic “little cottage girl” about the size of her family and she tells him seven, even though two are dead and “buried in a churchyard near her home/ Their graves are green, they can be seen” (30-33). The poet is a realist, and is unwilling to accept her explanation. To him, there are alone five children, two are dead. To the young girl, however, the family is seven, the two dead are still with her. This may seem like imagination or subjective reality, but she tells him that she does “live” with them in a very physical way: "I sit and sing to them/And often after sun-set, Sir/When it is light and fair/I take my little porringer/And eat my supper there (lines 36–48). The young farm girl believes they are a part of her family in a real way, while the poet thinks she is just a young person unable or unwilling to accept death. She lives in a world of imagination, and her reality is anything she wants it to be. The poet, on the other hand, is older and accepts death as a permanent separation – once someone is dead, they are gone. She eats her dinner with the dead, so to her they are a part of the family. However, ultimately her view seems to makes some sense, the narrator seems too adamant about his adult version of death, it is too cold and not organic. The young girl could represent a more organic natural way of dealing with death.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” focuses on a sailor who has returned home after a long time at sea. He meets a busy young man on his way to a wedding and, after overcoming some initial impatience, beguiles him with a story that uses a variety of literary techniques to create a supernatural story that revolves the symbolism of an albatross. The sailor was on a ship that got lost in the Antarctic, and the bird leads them out of danger. However, the sailor fears the waters are too calm, and kills the albatross with his crossbow. The other crewmembers are very angry with the sailor, but once the ship reaches calm waters, "'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay / that bring the fog and mist" (101). Then the waters become too calm, and the sailors blame the narrator again, for stranding them in becalmed waters: Day after day, day after day/ We stuck, nor breath nor motion;/As idle as a painted ship/Upon a painted ocean,/Water, water, every where,/And all the boards did shrink;Water, water, every where;Nor any drop to drink” (115-117).
Lord Byron’s “Darkness” is an apocalyptic tale of the end of daylight. The Earth goes dark, everything is burned for lights, the animals dies and people slowly start to go mad and die off. The people resort to cannibalism and become monsters. Eventually, two men are left, and when they see each others grotesque faces they both die, ending the human race. It is hard to find Sci-Fi dystopic stories without elements from this poem. In general, the future is presented as a dark place. For example, in Blade Runner, the city is gloomy, rainy and dark all the time. Cannibalism is all the rage in zombie narratives of any kind, a classic would be Night of the Living Dead, more recently shows like The Walking Dead focus on how individuals deal with a decaying society. The slow disintegration of society is also a common theme in sci-fi dystopias. In “Darkness”, Lord Byron uses a lot of imagery, which paints a disturbing dystopic landscape: “Gorging himself in gloom:/ no love was left;/All earth was but one thought—and that was death (55-57). The last man on earth narrative is also very popular, from Vincent Price in Last Man on Earth (1964) to the 1954 novel I am Legend, which was turned into a 2007 movie with Will Smith. Usually, these reflect a Cold War influenced nuclear apocalypse. More recently, you get plagues and medical viruses that create bloodthirsty mutants or zombies. Light is associated with civilization and society, while darkness usually represents the end of the world.

Works Cited

"Darkness." By Lord George Gordon Byron. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2015.
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." By Samuel Taylor Coleridge. N.p., n.d. Web. 07
Wordsworth, WIlliam. "We Are Seven." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d.
Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
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