Mortality in Perspective

With the prospect of human mortality in mind both poems “Variation of the Word Sleep” (by Margaret Atwood) and “Encounter” (by Czeslaw Milosz) show different aspects of their ideas through their rhythmic and imagery poetry. “Variation of the Word Sleep”, in particular, focuses on how to live life before death.

The narrator of Atwood’s poem wishes to appreciate a person, who I presume is a lover, as they “sleep”. She describes it as wishing to go into that person’s dreams and live happily with that person, to walk the wondrous landscapes, protect that person from fears and grief, and inhabit that person as much as possible. In my perspective, the narrator referrers to “sleep” as the temporary state we are in before death, or in other words life. The grief is of course the turmoil a person can experience during their lifetime, and the fear, as it is described as descending into a cave, is the oncoming death. One particular line, the narrator says she wishes to follow up a long stairway, and guide the person through a boat.  These could be analogies towards different ways to ascending to heaven, such as the stairway, or the river that leads the dead to the afterlife, such as Styx.

 

 

“Encounter” is all about how ideally death is instantaneous and unexpected. The poem’s first stanzas are rhythmic and flow, as I assume the scene and setting were like before the incident, until the narrator reveals the death. Unlike the other poem, which contemplates a life-time of memories which happen before death, Milosz focused on the moment rather. The narrator particularly remembers the small gesture the man made before he had died shortly after. He then begins to wonder where life has gone, now that it has left, whilst the other poem shy’s from the thought.