Small Elegy Essay, Research Paper

The rubric of this specific piece of poesy is “ A Small Elegy ” . Now,

this rubric does non truly give a reader much to travel on. The lone thing one would

cognize about this verse form is that it is a little one and that it may be about a

asleep individual or person who new person who dies. I say this because lament is

derived from the Latin elegia, which means ; A verse form or vocal composed particularly

as a plaint for a asleep individual. From the beginning, “ A Small Elegy ”

dramatically establishes that the talker a substitute for the poet, is by himself

speaking to himself. He was with other people, but now he is wholly

entirely & # 8211 ; his friends gone, his beloved sleeping elsewhere, unconscious, far off.

The talker is the exclusive operating consciousness mourning in a universe where

everyone else is asleep. Against the pitch-dark darkness he starts stating

things to himself, utilizing white words, which I take to intend words that have a

sort of unselfconscious pureness about them. He daydreams about his female parent, an

“ autumnal remembrance ” , and that in bend moves him back toward his

childhood place where his female parent seems still to preside & # 8211 ; diminished now over an

antique universe. She is smaller, more vulnerable, person to be protected. “ Matku, ”

he says tenderly in Czech, “ Mon maminku, ” my small ma, which the

transcriber has rendered as “ my bantam ma. ” He imagines that after

all these old ages she & # 8217 ; s still sitting back at that place, softly uncomplaining, believing

about his male parent who died so long ago. It is the following minute in the verse form, when

the tense radically alterations, that I find particularly compelling. “ And so

she is clambering fruit for me, ” he says, “ I am in the room. Siting

right following to her. ” He doesn & # 8217 ; Ts say “ And so she was clambering fruit

for me, ” but alternatively finds himself catapulted into the past as a life

nowadays. He has been wrenched out of one clip into another. The amplitude of his

feeling is about intolerable and he starts agitating his fist at God,

utilizing a

kid & # 8217 ; s linguistic communication, naming him a & # 8221 ; bully ” because now he is cognizant that God

has taken off so much, because so much is lost. And he so proceeds with the

pitilessness of a logical proposition to confront what can no longer be evaded.

“ Because of all those hours I slept soundly, through unagitated darks, ” he

declares that is, because of all those darks when he was safe and unconscious.

“ Because of all the loved 1s who are deep in dreams ” That is,

because of all those who are unconscious now, unaware of the hazard that

environments them he realizes that clip is running out and announces: “ I can & # 8217 ; T

base being here by myself. The lamplight & # 8217 ; s excessively strong. ” Here the lamplight

becomes the emblem of a consciousness that is excessively much to bear, an isolation

that is killing: “ I am seeding grain on the promontory. I will non populate

long. ” The acknowledgment here is that what he is seting is endangered,

imperiled, and vulnerable. What he workss he will non be able to protect. The

sowing of grain on the promontory is his last gesture, his manner of seting a

message in a bottle when he knows he won & # 8217 ; t last much longer. The verse form concludes

with a awful acknowledgment. When I read it, my urge is to wake up everyone

around me everyone fifty love before it is excessively late. In decision this verse form is merely

one stanza that contains 24 lines. The poet refers to the talker as

& # 8216 ; I & # 8217 ; and he besides uses the words & # 8216 ; my & # 8217 ; and & # 8216 ; myself & # 8217 ; which lead me to the decision

that this verse form was written in the first individual. The talker in this verse form recalls

his yesteryear after his friends have left and his “ favorite ” ( married woman,

girlfriend, kid ) is asleep. He foremost begins to believe of his female parent so gets

to his male parent. The talker is empty indoors because he has suffered so much great

loss. He has suffered so much that he curses God and calls him a

“ bully ” and he says to himself that he cant stand being entirely for any

longer and he besides says that he will non populate long which may connote that his life

may stop sooner than it has to.