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"An examination of her body after death"- Essay
The poem “An examination of her body after death”, written by Glen Colquhoun is about the reaction and feeling of the author when he sees the examination of the dead body of someone he loved. The dead person, who is someone called Rongo Subritzky, lived from 1913-1999. The main ideas of the poem are ‘denial’ and ‘remembering’, and the author uses metaphors and negatives to show this.
One of the main and important ideas of this poem is ‘denial’. The author is sad, angry and confused at the death of his friend and is denying it. He uses continuous repetition to show this- the sentence ‘You are not her….’, and especially the word ‘not’, which is a negative word. The writer is denying his friend’s death because he cared for her and loved her too much. The writer is mourning a friend/family that has died. I understand this by his usage of exclamination marks and the word ‘not’.
Another idea is ‘remembering’. In the morgue during the examination for his loved one’s body, he is remembering her lots. He uses lots of interesting metaphors with strong words to show this. As for example, the metaphor ‘The sound of birds has gone away.’ is describing how the writer remembered her sweet voice. He missed and remembered her gentle talks and maybe the songs she sane (because the sound of birds is sweet and song-like), and now he is seeing her as cold & quiet and her lips look like two fat, hungry worms. This helped me get the idea that he loved her a lot and is trying to tell himself that the dead body is not her and there has been a mistake.
The author has few moods in the poem- sorrow, anger and confusion, and the ideas are different- denial and remembering. I think the author’s main purpose for writing this poem is to show how it really, really feels and what you feel like doing when you lose a loved one. His techniques and language features like repetition, metaphors, interesting words, exclamination marks and structure help us feel when we lose a loved one. That’s why the poem’s main ideas are denial and remembering.
"Tangi"- Essay
The poem “Tangi”, written by a New Zealander Hone Tuwhare, is about the author’s ‘feelings’ or ‘response’ when he attends two funerals from different cultures. At the beginning of the poem, where he is explaining the English-European funeral, he is fairly negative, but as the poem develops, he builds quite a positive attitude towards the Maori funeral. The main idea of the poem is how different cultures deal with death and grief and the mood of the poem are ‘discomfort’ and ‘belonging’.
At the start, the mood of the poem is negative- the writer is negative towards the English-European funeral. His usage of the words ‘not’ and ‘nor’ show this. As for example- in the sentence ‘I did not meet her on the bordered path nor detect her fragrance in the frolic of violets and carnations’, where he is personifying death, the author is showing he did not really ‘feel’ the funeral properly and he felt rather uncomfortable, excluded, out of place, disconnected and lonely. Violets’ and carnations’ (flowers found in Europe, mainly UK) fragrance was just not good enough for him. The sentence ‘I did not meet her’ shows that he is lost and has no idea what he is doing. But later on in the poem, the poet develops a positive mood. The sentence ‘But I heard her with the wind crooning in the hung wires and caught her beauty by the coffin’ shows that he actually ‘felt’ like a funeral at the Tangi (Tangi is a traditional Maori funeral that can last up to 5 days). He was fairly calm at the Tangi, while looking at the bowed heads of old women, the green-leaved bands on their heads and he calm positioned hands. He feels safe, happy, relieved, cared and ‘belonged’ at the Tangi.
Cultures have their own way to express death and grief, and that is the main idea of the poem. The contrast between the 2 funerals is significant. The author is showing his mood of ‘discomfort’ at the English-European funeral, but at his own cultural Tangi, his feelings change and he feels attached. The 2 cultures in the poem ‘Tangi’ are very different, and so the way they deal, express, and let out grief and death is different. The English-European funeral is short, mostly few hours and delivering flowers, whereas the New Zealand-Maori funeral may last up to 5 days by letting out anger and sorrow by praying.
I think the poem shows great contrast between two completely different cultures, and how they express death and grief. I reckon the title of the poem could be “How Different Cultures Deal With Death And Grief”, because that’s what the poem is about- showing differences between the English and the Maori religions. I think the poem is well written and well structured and I enjoyed reading it.
At the start, the mood of the poem is negative- the writer is negative towards the English-European funeral. His usage of the words ‘not’ and ‘nor’ show this. As for example- in the sentence ‘I did not meet her on the bordered path nor detect her fragrance in the frolic of violets and carnations’, where he is personifying death, the author is showing he did not really ‘feel’ the funeral properly and he felt rather uncomfortable, excluded, out of place, disconnected and lonely. Violets’ and carnations’ (flowers found in Europe, mainly UK) fragrance was just not good enough for him. The sentence ‘I did not meet her’ shows that he is lost and has no idea what he is doing. But later on in the poem, the poet develops a positive mood. The sentence ‘But I heard her with the wind crooning in the hung wires and caught her beauty by the coffin’ shows that he actually ‘felt’ like a funeral at the Tangi (Tangi is a traditional Maori funeral that can last up to 5 days). He was fairly calm at the Tangi, while looking at the bowed heads of old women, the green-leaved bands on their heads and he calm positioned hands. He feels safe, happy, relieved, cared and ‘belonged’ at the Tangi.
Cultures have their own way to express death and grief, and that is the main idea of the poem. The contrast between the 2 funerals is significant. The author is showing his mood of ‘discomfort’ at the English-European funeral, but at his own cultural Tangi, his feelings change and he feels attached. The 2 cultures in the poem ‘Tangi’ are very different, and so the way they deal, express, and let out grief and death is different. The English-European funeral is short, mostly few hours and delivering flowers, whereas the New Zealand-Maori funeral may last up to 5 days by letting out anger and sorrow by praying.
I think the poem shows great contrast between two completely different cultures, and how they express death and grief. I reckon the title of the poem could be “How Different Cultures Deal With Death And Grief”, because that’s what the poem is about- showing differences between the English and the Maori religions. I think the poem is well written and well structured and I enjoyed reading it.
