Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
He knows death to the bone
Man has created death.
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
He knows death to the bone
Man has created death.
- by W.B.Yeats
What strikes me about this poem is the effect the vocabulary Yeats uses creates a tense atmosphere around me. The 'supersession of breath' is a truly striking line as it portrays breath as inferior when faced with death. The use of said low frequency lexis adds to the eerie feel the short poem already emits. 'Man has created death.' The direct impact of the final line to some could be of some confusion. Can man really be the cause of death? In a biblical sense, maybe so. 'He knows death to the bone' would suggest death is an experience man is particularly familiar with; Yeats' word choice creates thought-provoking verses; I think helps to present his own beliefs, which I believe, are that men are 'murderous' and the cause of the world's 'death'. Yeats, however, was a World War poet so his beliefs could also be that the 'murderous men' may only be in the war sense and that man is the death of man.
This piece interests me both because of the vocabulary used and each individual message/theme that could be deciphered.
What strikes me about this poem is the effect the vocabulary Yeats uses creates a tense atmosphere around me. The 'supersession of breath' is a truly striking line as it portrays breath as inferior when faced with death. The use of said low frequency lexis adds to the eerie feel the short poem already emits. 'Man has created death.' The direct impact of the final line to some could be of some confusion. Can man really be the cause of death? In a biblical sense, maybe so. 'He knows death to the bone' would suggest death is an experience man is particularly familiar with; Yeats' word choice creates thought-provoking verses; I think helps to present his own beliefs, which I believe, are that men are 'murderous' and the cause of the world's 'death'. Yeats, however, was a World War poet so his beliefs could also be that the 'murderous men' may only be in the war sense and that man is the death of man.
This piece interests me both because of the vocabulary used and each individual message/theme that could be deciphered.
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