The Weakness of Death
“On Death, Without Exaggeration” by Wislawa Szymborska is an observation of Death by a third party. The speaker is discussing how little power Death has in a life. Many people feel that death is omnipotent and they have no power over this. The speaker is using evidence seen over many years to show the reader that Death is not an all powerful entity. Death is the same awkward truth in life just like it was when the world first began. Szymborska uses persona, personification, and connotation to show that Death does not have any power over your life until the very end. The persona of this poem is the voice from an onlooker who has seen the effects of death and has come to the realization that death is not an all powerful …show more content…
Death can not even clean up the mess it makes after it gets down with its killing, (8-12). It leaves the job to the people left behind because Death does not hold the power to do it. An all powerful being would be able to make a casket and plan a funeral. Death “isn’t strong enough to swat a fly from the air,” (20-21). Death is able to kill a fly, but it does not have the ability to smack the fly out of its flight. This is something that is a basic human reflex when a fly is bothering us. The only power Death has is to kill an object. It is not able to modify the path an object takes. Our lives are usually described as a series of doors and windows. When one door closes, another door opens until we get to the last door in our lives. This is when death “tugs at the knob/ of the invisible door./ As far as you’ve come/ can’t be undone,” (45-48). Death will come at the end of your life, but your life is so much more than the end. Everything that you have done can not be diminished. Even Death can not take away the things that you have accomplished and experienced. If Death had all the power over your life, everything you have ever took part in would be gone as soon as you died. The power that Death has over you is just a human perception. In reality, Death only has power over you at the very end of your …show more content…
This is why Szymborska only wrote the name of what she was talking about one time at the end of the poem “Death,” (line 43). Throughout the poem, Szymborska is describing Death without ever uttering its name. The reader knows that she is describing Death because we have all lived through its heartbreaking events and learned how to identify it. The idea of the amount of power that Death has is a concept that is extremely frightening to many people. Power can mean control and restraint. This alarms people because no one wants an object like Death to be able to control what they do or restrain them to do certain activities so that Death does not come sooner. Szymborska put this connotation at the end of the poem to symbolize how Death’s power only comes at the end of your life. The idea of Death does not need to be worried about before your life starts to come to an end, just as the word Death did not need to be read until the poem came to an
“On Death, Without Exaggeration” by Wislawa Szymborska is an observation of Death by a third party. The speaker is discussing how little power Death has in a life. Many people feel that death is omnipotent and they have no power over this. The speaker is using evidence seen over many years to show the reader that Death is not an all powerful entity. Death is the same awkward truth in life just like it was when the world first began. Szymborska uses persona, personification, and connotation to show that Death does not have any power over your life until the very end. The persona of this poem is the voice from an onlooker who has seen the effects of death and has come to the realization that death is not an all powerful …show more content…
Death can not even clean up the mess it makes after it gets down with its killing, (8-12). It leaves the job to the people left behind because Death does not hold the power to do it. An all powerful being would be able to make a casket and plan a funeral. Death “isn’t strong enough to swat a fly from the air,” (20-21). Death is able to kill a fly, but it does not have the ability to smack the fly out of its flight. This is something that is a basic human reflex when a fly is bothering us. The only power Death has is to kill an object. It is not able to modify the path an object takes. Our lives are usually described as a series of doors and windows. When one door closes, another door opens until we get to the last door in our lives. This is when death “tugs at the knob/ of the invisible door./ As far as you’ve come/ can’t be undone,” (45-48). Death will come at the end of your life, but your life is so much more than the end. Everything that you have done can not be diminished. Even Death can not take away the things that you have accomplished and experienced. If Death had all the power over your life, everything you have ever took part in would be gone as soon as you died. The power that Death has over you is just a human perception. In reality, Death only has power over you at the very end of your …show more content…
This is why Szymborska only wrote the name of what she was talking about one time at the end of the poem “Death,” (line 43). Throughout the poem, Szymborska is describing Death without ever uttering its name. The reader knows that she is describing Death because we have all lived through its heartbreaking events and learned how to identify it. The idea of the amount of power that Death has is a concept that is extremely frightening to many people. Power can mean control and restraint. This alarms people because no one wants an object like Death to be able to control what they do or restrain them to do certain activities so that Death does not come sooner. Szymborska put this connotation at the end of the poem to symbolize how Death’s power only comes at the end of your life. The idea of Death does not need to be worried about before your life starts to come to an end, just as the word Death did not need to be read until the poem came to an