In this assignment I will be comparing the poems Remember by Christina Rossetti and the poem Funeral blues by WH Auden. I will show some intensive points of comparison in the form, structure and language used and how both poems deal with love, tranquillity, peace and death. Both poems are about the feelings of love and death. There is a universal feeling between love and death, as they don’t change, and neither do their feelings. In “Funeral Blues” the feeling conveyed is that once the person you loved has gone there is no point in life anymore and everything is over.
Whereas “Remember” is saying to remember the loved person when they have gone at the beginning of the poem but in the sestet the author tell the person she is writing the poem to that they should forget them. “Remember” is a beautiful poem that speaks from death, reminding the people who are left behind to remember the person who has passed on. This poem tells people to remember the departed, but not to be sad that they are no longer sharing a life together. Remember” is a bitter sweet. She suffered from ill health throughout out her life and so it is not surprising that she should explore the theme of death. As a Christian, Rossetti believed in the afterlife and so this poem is poignant with a sense of hope that death is not the end. In the first line, which is the theme of the whole poem the narrator asks to be remembered. Remember me when I am gone away,” This line sounds like someone pleading. She wants recognition.
At this point it could be a couple separating or someone who has to go on a journey. It is only when reading on to the second and third lines that suddenly the reader is aware that it is about dying. It is described as a “silent land”. “When you can no more hold me by the hand,” The reader is made aware that this is a physical separation. The lines that follow on then reveal separation through death. It is the loss of a loved one and about deals with missing the physical contact such as holding onto that person.
This then leads onto the loneliness of death when you can’t share your dreams with a loved one anymore, indicated when the narrator says, “Remember me when no more day by day You tell me of our future that you planned:” Even the ordinary becomes important when a loved one dies such as chatting about day to day events. Christina explores the grieving process within “Remember” after the shock and sadness of someone dying then there is the stage where the one who has died isn’t thought of constantly. The sadness and pain is still there but it isn’t as acute when it is forgotten for a moment.
Even then she has advice for the bereaved person when she tells them; “do not grieve” (line 10) The grief process follows on to the pain of thinking about a loved one and feeling pain because of the memories it evokes and the loss of them. In this case the narrator’s advice is to forget about her because she doesn’t want the person to “remember and be sad,” Beautifully written, packed with emotional content of love and loss it is a hopeful poem. It is the type of poem that brings comfort at funerals. Hearing the words aloud somehow makes 1070285980 even more meaningful.
In a nutshell the narrator is asking to be remembered but ironically if the remembrance of her brings sadness she would rather be forgotten. Funeral blues is the perfect poem for expressing the anguish of the loss of a loved one, “Funeral Blues” says exactly what most people are feeling as they deal with the loss of a spouse or other dear person. It’s a heart-breaking, beautiful and true poem. In “Funeral blues” Auden makes the bitter attitude of the speaker toward the subject of death apparent to the readers through the use of symbols, imagery, personification and metaphor.
In the first stanza Auden states “stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone.. ” The clok being stopped may signify the fact that he who died has run out of time and also to ask those who knew him to stop what they are doing and reflect as it’s the end of time as we know it. The telephone being cut off brings forth the idea of silence. Auden does this to show the deceased the respect they deserve. Auden believes in honouring the dead with a moment of silence to pay respect.
In the second stanza the speaker states “let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead”. She uses the metaphoric image to convey the pointlessness of her life and also her greif. What point is therefore aeroplanes to fly in circles? She is comparing the pointlessness of flying in cirlces to her life without a partner. The poems “Funeral Blues” and “remember” are beautifully dark twisted poems dealing with the concept and fatality of death and facing death in its morbid face. This is shown throughout by language and form used by both writers.
