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By Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) A Study Guide cummings@cummingsstudyguides.net |
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Study
Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...© 2012 ......."The Dead Man Walking" is a lyric poem centering despair and pessimism. A lyric poem presents the author's imaginative or emotional response to a person, a place, a thing, an event, or an idea. Unlike a narrative poem, a lyric poem does not tell a story. Publication ......."The Dead Man Walking," completed in 1890, was first published in London in 1909 by Macmillan and Company in a collection of Hardy's poems entitled Time's Laughinstocks and Other Verses. .......The
tone of the poem is gloomy. The speaker is in such
deep despair that he compares himself to a dead man. .......The speaker tells the reader the following: .......I am a walking dead man, although people take me for a living being when they say hello to me. I am just a shape without a heartbeat. My death did not happen all at once, but gradually. .......When I was young, I roved about like a troubadour. Life was my musical instrument, my lyre, and I had fire in me. But when I noticed the goals that others pursued, I grew a little cold and I died a little. When the people around me went to the grave and left me behind, I died a little more. When my beloved started hating me—for what reason, I don't know—I moved still closer to death. .......I still am not sure exactly when I became a dead man. But I do know that now—when I walk or talk or smile—I am not alive. .
The Dead Man Walking By Thomas Hardy They hail me as one living, But don't they know That I have died of late years, Untombed although? I am but a shape that stands here, A pulseless mould, A pale past picture, screening Ashes gone cold. Not at a minute's warning, Not in a loud hour, For me ceased Time's enchantments In hall and bower. There was no tragic transit, No catch of breath, When silent seasons inched me On to this death .... — A Troubadour-youth I rambled With Life for lyre, The beats of being raging In me like fire.  But when I
practised eyeingThe goal of men, It iced me, and I perished A little then. When passed my friend, my kinsfolk, Through the Last Door, And left me standing bleakly, I died yet more; And when my Love's heart kindled In hate of me, Wherefore I knew not, died I One more degree. And if when I died fully I cannot say, And changed into the corpse-thing I am to-day, Yet is it that, though whiling The time somehow In walking, talking, smiling, I live not now. Notes 1.. bower: Boudoir; bedroom. 2.. Troubadour: Wandering minstrel. A troubadour composed lyric poems that he sang. 3.. lyre: Stringed instrument. 4.. Last Door: Death. 5.. Wherefore: Why.
.......The speaker suffers from deep despair,
dwelling only on the negative and seeing nothing at
all in life to cheer him. Observing the questionable
practices of others in the pursuit of their goals
precipitates his gloominess. The loss of friends and
loved ones, followed by his beloved's rejection of
him, deepens his gloom. Unlike others who mourn losses
and experience disappointment, the speaker seems
unable to rebound.
.......The second and fourth lines of each stanza
contain end rhyme. All of the end rhymes are masculine
except the end rhyme in lines 10 and 12, which is
feminine. In masculine rhyme, only the final syllable
of one line rhymes with the final syllable of another
line. In feminine rhyme, the last two syllables of one
line rhyme with the last two syllables of another
line. In the feminine rhyme in lines 10 and 12, hour
technically has only one syllable. However, it is
pronounced as if it has two. It rhymes with a
two-syllable word, bower. .......The first stanza demonstrates this pattern. ......1.................2..............3..........4 They HAIL..|..me AS..|..one LIV..|..ing,......................(iambic tetrameter with an incomplete foot at the end) .......1...................2 But DON'T..|..they KNOW.........................................(iambic dimeter) ....1..............2...............3..............4 That I..|..have DIED..|..of LATE..|..years,....................(iambic tetrameter with an incomplete foot at the end) ..........1....................2 Un TOMBED..|..al THOUGH?....................................(iambic dimeter) .......Line 17 departs from the pattern. It has eight syllables, consisting of an iamb, an anapest, an iamb, and a catalectic foot. Figures of Speech .......Following are examples of figures of speech in the poem. For definitions of figures of speech, click here. Alliteration A pulseless mould, Not at a minute's warning,Metaphor Throughout the poem, the speaker compares himself to a corpse. Here are other metaphors:Paradox The poem is about a living dead man.Simile The beats of being ragingStudy Questions and Essay Topics
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