Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Rendezvous W/ Death

Good Essays
472 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Rendezvous W/ Death
I Have a Rendezvous With Death - By: Alan Seeger
Vincent Lee
Analysis

"I Have a Rendezvous With Death” by Alan Seeger informs of the poet's mind-set towards death. In the start where he uses the word "barricade," he is representing war to begin the poem. His poem goes on to develop on the concept of death through war and battle with the use of terminology such as "disputed" to recommend issue. The poet, returning to the trenches, connects a certain elegance and respectability to the concept of death by personifying it as a sensitive, looking after, individual partner (“It may be he shall take my side / And cause me into his black land”), therefore linking the connection between man and death and also creating it less horrific.
One occasion that scares abounding individuals, is death. Everyone is ready for unexpected activities in life, though there is no way to guess how and when they occur. No one, however, is ready to fulfill death, despite understanding completely well that it is not an unexpected occasion, but a guarantee. A rendezvous is not just an encounter. It is of free will, expected and often organized. It is associated not with worry or hate, but with friendly spirit and enthusiasm.
The comfort of human relationships compared with the silence and bareness of death - but the poet leaves us with no question that he will be real to his assurance to battle for his nation and meet Death at the appointed rendezvous come Spring in some "flaming town." The visuals of spring is normally associated with way of living, joy and great mood. It is a time when climate becomes pleasanter, new results in and vegetation begin to develop again and new blossoms appear. Imagery such as "scarred" allows to suggest concepts of discomfort as we contrast the flowery meadows with trench-dug dirty areas.
The first of the three stanzas of the poem is the most stunning because it attracts an unusual connection between birth and death. It forecasts the poet’s upcoming, yet brave death. The second presents the levels of death and the third states that the poet is not desperate to stay in his comfortable area like most others would do, but wants to take pleasure in maintaining his appointment with death at all expenses.
"I Have a Rendezvous with Death" is basically a poem of elegance and love, the poet’s lover being ‘death’. It is made on the anvil of war loaded with the flame of feelings. On one side, it shows a soldier’s jeopardizing his life on the battlefield with consideration, to be able to keep his pledge, as an act of bravery. However, the concept of the elegance of war and its brave prospective despite the poem not quite seeming to support war as something acceptable in itself.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    One thing all humans must experience through out life is the uncanny sense of death lingering just around the corner, in dark alleyways, and on the faces of strangers. We all have our own way of coping with the notion that there is an expiration date on our lives, may it be through grievance and fear, or with boldness and aspiration for what is to become of us afterwards. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce uses the situational archetype of facing death, as well as the anti-villain and scapegoat character archetypes, to illustrate mans’ perspective on the passing of life and coming to death in times of danger and misfortune.…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In this piece, Alan Seeger uses diction, repetition, personification and rhyme scheme to relate to the reader that, death is not something to be feared, although it is inevitable and unpredictable. This gives a sense that Seeger sees death to be calmly be accepted and maybe likely. The poem is spoken by a soldier who knows that he or she may face death all around, and wishes they could avoid conflict but instead be safe in comfort. Death is personified in this piece with the use of the term rendezvous; like a meeting with someone you may know. As well as death, spring is personified, giving a stark contrast between the unexpected end of life, and the expected time of growth in the world. (“When Spring comes back with rustling shade… I have…

    • 172 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The true beauty of this poem for me, and what makes it so enigmatic, is the mutual recognition in a person, between two moments past and future, of one's frame of mind at the other moment. We are so long in time, that such connections are very, very rare, and to have a moment of empathy with one's future or past self is both to gain a momentary insight into the nature of life and aging, and to momentarily gain a new internal context to how we perceive the aging of others, and what it really means to…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout human history, we have been fascinated with our own mortality. This obsession with life and death has carried over into our literary works, and given birth to stories such as Dr. Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dr. Faustus. These tales revolve around the preservation and unnatural extension of life, either through the power of science or the supernatural. On these ideas there are three pertinent examples of poems in which life is shown as being frail. In all of these poems life is presented as being weak and easily susceptible to negative outside forces. However, they each express this in a distinct manner; either through clinging to the life of a loved one, showing life’s weakness through its corruption and demonstrating…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death is inevitable. No matter how much an individual clings to life hoping and wishing to escape death, death always follows. Yet, in the presence of those who cling to life, there are individuals who accept that death is a part of life. Those individuals realize that from the moment of birth death is inevitable. In light of these two polar responses to death I find it important to try to understand the concept of “good death.” For the purpose of this short essay I will not dive into whether death is good. For now I will only explore the fluidity of “good death” by highlighting specific attitudes that have endured over the past 150 years and offer personal suggests for why I think these attitudes have persisted.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Death is a personal event that man cannot describe for himself. As far back as we can tell, man has been both intrigued by death and fearful of it; he has been motivated to seek answers to the mystery and to seek solutions to his anxiety. Every known culture has provided some answer to the meaning of death; for death, like birth or marriage, is universally regarded as a socially significant…

    • 5729 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson Diction

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There is a multitude of poems written with the theme of death, be it in a positive light or negative. Some poets write poems that depict Death as a spine-chilling inevitable end, others hold respect for this natural occurrence. In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death”, diction and personification is utilized to demonstrate the speaker’s cordial friendship with Death.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Life and Death Overtakes

    • 2374 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Death is a dreaded word. It is a word that many people would not want to talk about. Death is considered a morbid word and many would not find this as an engaging topic. According to Patricelli (2007), “[d]eath remains a great mystery, one of the central issues with which religion and philosophy and science have wrestled since the beginning of human history. Even though dying is a natural part of existence, American culture is unique in the extent to which death is viewed as a taboo topic. Rather than having open discussions, we tend to view death as a feared enemy that can and should be defeated by modern medicine and machines”. There are also people that have negative connotations about death, rendering life even meaningless because of it. Death appears to render life meaningless for many people because they feel that there is no point in developing character or increasing knowledge if our progress is ultimately going to be thwarted by death (Augustine, 2000). But the author contends that there is a point in developing character and increasing knowledge before death overtakes us: to provide peace of mind and intellectual satisfaction to our lives and to the lives of those we care about for their own sake because pursuing these goals enriches our lives. From the fact that death is inevitable it does not follow that nothing we do matters now. On the contrary, our lives matter a great deal to us. If they did not, we would not find the idea of our own death so distressing--it wouldn't matter that our lives will come to an end. The fact that we're all eventually going to die has no relevance to whether our activities are worthwhile in the here and now: For an ill patient in a hospital a doctor's efforts to alleviate pain certainly does matter despite the fact that 'in the end' both the doctor and the patient will be dead (Augustine).…

    • 2374 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gwen Harwood Analysis

    • 6099 Words
    • 17 Pages

    In addition, the persona’s experience of maturation is reflected in the growth of the violets and other natural references, further demonstrating the Romantic influence within this poem. Throughout the poem, there is an extended connection between nature and humanity, a connection which once manifested as a Romantic ideal. In the third stanza, set in the past, there is a description of the violets as “spring…

    • 6099 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the first stanza, it was cheerful and about youth and therefore the beginning of life, while the third stanza, it is suddenly darkening, which can…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I enjoyed studying this poem for it's underlying poignancy. As a reader, I was struck by the bleak tone of the closing lines. Having taken account of each and every aspect of his life; 'I balanced all...'; the speaker views the future as meaningless and futile: 'The years to come seemed a waste of breath...'. The final lines of the poem reflect the grim logic of a man who seems to regard his life as pointless and is ready to meet his fate 'somewhere among the clouds above'. The underyling poignancy is extremely evident at this stage as the reader feels that such a death as to die in action would be his final adventurous exploit.…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    illustrates the irrationality of life for it can be taken away at any given time for no rational reason. He uses a car accident to finely detail the reaction of society towards death and the real meaning that it represents to us. During the poem, he describes how a well established system that is made of ambulances, hospitals, police men and viewers, works at its given time to strike death. But despite all the efforts and effectiveness of the system, people themselves are incapable of understanding death and its dualities (cancer that is both a flower that blooms and a tragic disease.) Society is scared and ignorant when it comes…

    • 1355 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death Be Not Proud

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The poem suggests that the poet has gained personal victory over death, disregarding its power and declaring his own ability to defy it. If you look closer, you would see that death has been written in small letters indicating that death is trifle. That it has no reputation or value. He mocks a very frightening subject implying that, the most severe power that ends the life of every man and woman cannot harm him because of his Christian belief in the afterlife.…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many find it hard to handle death knocking at their, or a loved one’s, door. This is because people face death with denial, anger, and other negative emotions. However, in this poem, the author links death not with the end, but instead a transformation. You can see this when it states “I am the soft stars that shine at night” (10). In other words, the author is saying that while she might not physically be next to you, she will be among other various things, such as stars. By linking death to beautiful nature instead of a void head stone, it helps people not to sulk endlessly and remember those who have passed with fondness. This concept, this theme, is crucial to introduce to…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Analysis of Spring Night

    • 2739 Words
    • 11 Pages

    In this case, although using usual way to interpreted Spring Night already impressed us with its beautifulness, by using biographical approach, we realize the poetry carried deeper meaning we never expected.…

    • 2739 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays