Elegy for My Fathers Father free essay sample

O for the tall tower broken’ * ‘eighty years of days’ – used instead of eight years of life * Each day was unique and a challenge for Baxter’s grandfather * Draws out the time – shows adds to the distance shown in the title * ‘O for the tall tower broken’ – ‘tall tower’ metaphor for life. * Life is a process of different events that help us to grow, physically in height and emotionally to build our knowledge. The floors of a building are the ages of life – the taller the tower, the more experience a person is in life and the older they are * ‘broken’ – when things are falling apart – linked to the point of realisation * ‘eighty years of days’ links to the use of the ‘tall tower’ * ‘tall tower’ – alliteration. Added to exaggerate the length of life * ‘tower’ – usually seen as something strong and sturdy, and chara cteristics linked to males * With the addition of ‘broken’ it implies how life is unexpected and can fall apart ‘They stood by the graveside From his bitter veins born And mourned him in their fashion’ * ‘they stood by the graveside/†¦/And mourned him in their fashion’ * The theme of death is present as the author is talking about the burial of his grandfather * The family members were finding it difficult to mourn for his death as they all ‘mourned him in their fashion’ * The family members did not actually know how the grandfather wanted to be fare welled as ‘his heart had never spoken’, he hadn’t expressed what he wanted of felt. We will write a custom essay sample on Elegy for My Fathers Father or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page * ‘From his bitter veins born’ * ‘bitter’ – resulting from grief, anguish and disappointment. Links back to the ‘heart had never spoken’ * The grandfather felt ‘bitter’ after ‘he knew in the hour he died/†¦/that his heart had never spoken ‘He could slice and build†¦ On his walking shoulder held Under the lion sun’ * ‘He could slice and build’ And his heart was unafraid’ * ‘tongues of water spoke’ – personification * Another person of his conscience talking to him in his dreams * Reminding him that all this time the grandfather had been able to keep the emotions bolted in and now death shouldn’t be something to bring them out * Baxter’s father’s father was aware of the cycle of life – shown through the various seasons * This aided his heart to be ‘unafraid’ ‘water’ also has its own cycle, like the life cycle * It is an essential element for life, like the ‘heart’ * The ‘heart’ and ‘water’ are both natural aspects of life – Baxter uses these aspects to explain how natural death comes as a process of life * Despite the grandfather’s failure to express feelings, he was sensitive to his experiences of the natural world around him.