Thematic Interpretation- Death

Introduction: Eventually, all of us are destined to die. We don’t know

when or how or what it will be like but it’s a sure
thing.
Not many of us probably think about death a lot but if we
did take a moment to think we might change our lifestyle
and value life more.

Transition: Sometimes you get to thinking about what you’re living for.
In Emily Dickinson’s I Died for Beauty, we’re reminded
that If it’s worth living for, it’s worth dying for.

I Died For Beauty

by Emily Dickinson
I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly-why I failed,
“For beauty” I replied.
“And I for truth. Themselves are one.
We brethren are” he said.

And so, as kinsman met a night,

We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips
And covered up our names.

Transition: In Steven Crane’s poem Behold, The Grave, the old saying
is suggested, What does it profit a man to gain the
whole world and lose his soul?

Behold, The Grave

by Steen Crane
Behold, the grave of a wicked man,
And near it, a stern spirit.

There came a dropping maid with violets,

But the spirit grasped her arm.
“No flowers for him,” he said.
The maid wept:
“Ah, I loved him.”

Now, this is it-

 If the spirit was just,
Why did the maid weep?

Transition: In this poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, called Elegy

Before Death, the value is more of a question that asks us
When death finally comes, what difference will you have
made.

Elegy Before Death

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
There will be rose and rhododendron
When you are dead and underground;
Still will be heard from white syringas
Heavy with bees, a sunny sound;

Still will the tamaracks be raining

After the rain has ceased, and still
Will there be robins in the stubble,
Gray sheep upon the warm green hill.

Spring will not ail nor autumn falter;

Nothing will know that you are gone,-
Saving alone some sullen plowland
None but yourself sets foot upon;

Saving the mayweed and the pigweed

Nothing will know that you are dead,-
These, and perhaps a useless wagon
Standing beside some tumbled shed.

Oh, there will pass with your great passing

Little of beauty not your own,-
Only the light from common water,
Only the grace from simple stone!

Transition: Now, you not only have a better idea of what death is, but
also may be changed by the reality of it. Basically it
comes down to this. Get busy living or get busy dying.

Restatement: 1. If it’s worth living for, it’s worth dying for.

2. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and
lose his soul?
4. When death finally comes, what difference will you have
made.
5. Get busy living or get busy dying.