Poetry is perhaps the most detailed and exact form of writing. This focus allows the writer to express their opinions in a very subtle and multifaceted way. Through varying poetic devices a writer can give new meaning to crucial concepts like life and death. Those who have always lead a comfortable life have a different view than those who have faced challenges at every turn. Many poets noticed this and reflected the differences in their works. In “Here Lies a Lady” John Crowe Ransom portrays an oddly admiring view of death that reflects how the aristocracy of the time treated it.
The general population views death as a somber and sad affair. Death is the ultimate loss and cannot be reversed. After reading “Here Lies a Lady” the diction is …show more content…
The lady’s strength is shown through imagery of fire. In line 5 her fever is not merely a slight rise in temperature, instead “she burned, and her confident eyes would blaze.” The image of fire is often associated with a lack of control and freedom. By giving her life force a connection to fire it shows her leaving the constructs of her high society. Phonetic intensives burned and blaze also serve to keep the strong fire imagery. This image of freedom is contrasted by lighter flower imagery that reflects the society’s view of the lady’s condition The first place it is used is when the chills set in and the lady was “like a thin stalk white and blown” (10). To the family she seems beautiful because of her frailness, but in reality she “would not open her eyes” (11) and could just “lay discouraged and cold” (10) giving a much more analytical view of her declining health. In the third stanza the flower imagery continues, as the speaker addresses those similar to the now deceased lady with “long my ye bloom”. This command joins the delicate state of the lady on her deathbed with the youth and beauty prized in those who are healthy. This connection shows how the aristocrats’ values are askew in that a dying woman can be seen in the same manner as a healthy one. That connection is also strengthened by the rhetorical question, “But was she not lucky?” (14) saying that her life would have had less value than what her death held. This question becomes the point where the criticism of the aristocratic view of death is posed for the reader to decide