Speaker for the Dead

are several future events that the author foreshadows from the story Beowulf. When he says “A slave has stolen a jeweled chalice and so provoked a dragon; yet more than the threat of retribution is at stake” (The Lament of the Last Survivor).The speaker is alluding to the same dragon that later kills Beowulf. In this quote the author also discusses himself as being a man, who is the last of an ancient race of people committing the treasures that…

Edgar Allan Poe is known as one of America’s most famous poets. His poems were typically based on chilling imagery such as death, decay, supernatural powers and worldly evil, and looking into Edgar’s life, one could say that he wrote his poems based on his own life experiences. For instance, the fact that he lost most of the females close to his heart, are reflected in most of his poems, mainly by the death of a beautiful maiden. A short biography on Poe talked a little about a part of Poe’s…

humanity and the nature. The poem uses a conversational style to express the theme. It is a short poem which consists eighteen lines only, separated into four quatrains with one closing couplet. While the title literally and directly tells us the speaker of this poem is travelling through the dark, we are able to understand the situation…

principles, only then can one see the chain of events that can occur as a result of a single action. It can be said that “Traveling Through the Dark” is a text that examines and reflects upon the balance between life and death, which in turn allows the speaker to argue for the importance of acting with integrity in situations posing moral dilemmas. In…

ethos, pathos, and logos, it is obvious that Brutus is the more persuasive speaker. Both Brutus and Antony used ethos trying to persuade the crowd who the best persuasive speaker is at the funeral speech. One example from Brutus is, "Believe me for mine honor and have respect to mine honor that you may believe." He is trying to make them to respect him and believe him so that he will be proven to be the best persuasive speaker. One example from Antony is, "Ambition should be made of sterner…

Carruth uses images, irony, and allusions to show the speaker’s remorse and regret to how his friend was treated. Carruth uses images of the underworld and the adventures after death to show that his friend’s memory shouldn’t be lost yet. The speaker shows the dead that they are not forgotten by showing them that rituals are performed in their memory. “... When you came to the riverbank you saw a…

positive or negative connotation such as corruption or greed. The speaker goes on to say “[it] Smiles warm red light sweeping from the hearth rosily…

would be forgotten. In her poem “I Died for Beauty, but was Scarce,” Emily Dickinson promotes her theme about how identity is affected by death through the choice of the persona she adopts throughout them poem. Dickinson makes distinctions about the speaker right up front. The first words of the poem are, "I died for beauty" (line 1). The reader already knows at this point…

use of metaphors and symbolism. Housman's use of metaphors create a subtle irony, making dying young seem like a good thing. In his work, the metaphors are concentrated on the comparison between night, doorways, and death. In stanza four, the speaker mentions, "Eyes the shady night has shut / Cannot see the record cut" (Housman 13-14). Housman's use…

“Traveling Through The Dark” by William Stafford, the speaker has this hard decision to make. Does he save the deer, or kill it off? The speaker’s actions in the poem may appear humane at first, but he made the wrong decision by pushing the dead pregnant doe over the cliff, because he was condoning irresponsible human behavior and the unborn fawn was still viable. First, the speaker was condoning irresponsible human behavior. While…