Life and Death Everyone knows that death is inevitable, only no on wants to believe it. Death is the underlying theme in “Advice to My Son” by Peter Meinke and “Elegy to My Father, Who is Not Dead” by Andrew Hudgins. Although death will eventually come, there is a time to live and a time to say good-bye. Family is a major component, especially the relationships between father and son, in the matters of life and death between these two poems. Notably, family plays a big part in the beginning and end of life. The speaker in Meinke’s poem has a plan for the future of life. The father is telling the son to live his life to the fullest. Life is a time to live, but also plan for the future. The father knows how precious life is, and how quickly it can end, so the reader gets an illusion of a possible tragedy to the speaker’s life. Hudson’s speaker has a father who is near death. The son is not ready to give up his time with his father: “He’s ready. I am not. I can’t just say good-bye…” (line 14-15). As the father comes to his last days, he knows there will be something better on the other side. The son has to give up his beliefs to make sure that his father will live a peaceful life in his final days.
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Meinke uses the imagery of flowers to describe life. “Between the peony and the rose…beauty is nectar,” (line 11, 13). Flowers represent life by how they start from a seed are nourished to grow beautiful and strong. Although a flower grows to be beautiful, it’s time will also come. Hudgin’s uses a telephone as a symbol for the speaker’s fathers impending death. “One day I’ll lift the telephone and be told my father is dead,” (line 1-2). The telephone is a symbol of fear because the speaker does not want to lose his father. The speaker begins to think about his past with his father, and all the good times, but then he is thrust back into reality as he realizes the phone could ring at any
Meinke uses the imagery of flowers to describe life. “Between the peony and the rose…beauty is nectar,” (line 11, 13). Flowers represent life by how they start from a seed are nourished to grow beautiful and strong. Although a flower grows to be beautiful, it’s time will also come. Hudgin’s uses a telephone as a symbol for the speaker’s fathers impending death. “One day I’ll lift the telephone and be told my father is dead,” (line 1-2). The telephone is a symbol of fear because the speaker does not want to lose his father. The speaker begins to think about his past with his father, and all the good times, but then he is thrust back into reality as he realizes the phone could ring at any