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Sophia Amezquita-Diaz
Professor Payte
English 101
29 October, 2015
Pain and Death in America, Lyrically
The conventional essay is one of the simplest forms of writing. The Lyrical Essay which
can be said that it partakes from a few different type of genres. As it is explained in the Seneca
Review, "The lyric essay partakes of the poem in its density and shapeliness, its distillation of
ideas and musicality of language. It partakes of the essay in its weight, in its overt desire to
engage with facts, melding its allegiance to the actual with its passion for imaginative form" (11).
In Don't Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia Rankine, we can see and understand the difference in
style and form of the Lyrical Essay. The unique style that is used in the Lyrical Essay is complex
because it uses the characteristics and techniques of different genres like fiction, drama,
journalism, song, and film you also find the following in the style that it is written: juxtaposition,
ambiguity, metaphor, allusion and so on. Rankine uses the Lyrical Essay to show us how death
and pain is a part of life and the taboo around it. Death and pain in America, is something that we
do not talk about. Death and pain can have different meanings in life and yet, be ignored because
of the dark and negative affiliation that people have when they hear the words. Instead of fearing
death or pain, we should embrace life.

The lyrical form of writing an essay, gives it its unique tone and form. In Don't Let Me
Be Lonely, Rankine uses repetition, ambiguity and juxtapostion as a form to make a piece of the
essay that she feels is important and has meaning stand out. "If everybody did not die the earth
would be all covered over and I, I as I, could not have come to be and try as much as I can try not
be I, nevertheless, I would mind that so much, as much as anything, so then why not die, and yet
and again not a thing, not a thing to be liking, not a thing." In this piece I feel that Rankine is
validating death and why we all have to die one day. In The pain Scale, Eula Biss uses the same
form and style,
"The pain of learning, and the pain of reading.
The pain of trying.
The pain of living.
A minor pain or a major pain?
There is a mathematical proof that zero equals one. Which, of course, it doesnt" (8), the
technique that both use gives the essay a different tone when it's read making it interesting and
capturing the attention of the audience. Both authors focus on emphasizing how we as
individuals think of ourselves as being the most important, their form of style helps them get
their points across because it sounds more deep and exaggerated. Both authors focus on showing
us how both living and dying brings pain to our lives. As stated in the Seneca Review "the lyric
essay sets off on an uncharted course through interlocking webs of idea, circumstance, and
language - a pursuit with no foreknown conclusion, an arrival that might still leave the writer

questioning. While it is ruminative, it leaves pieces of experience undigested and tacit, inviting
the reader's participatory interpretation" As an open text it gives the reader the opportunity to
interpret the meaning of what theyve just read with an endless possibility of what it means. The
ambiguity of the writer gives the reader room for exploration and involvement with the text.
In Dont Let Me Be Lonely and The Pain Scale both authors use juxtaposition to compare
and contrast two things that will interest and help involve the reader. Rankine, "She has decided.
She's grown tired. She is finished. No matter whose will to life remains at her bedside, her death
is safe" (9) The malleability that Rankine uses by being ambiguous and using juxtaposition helps
us imagine the possibility of a safe death, if there is one. Can we have control of our death?
Should another person have the control of our death? Rankine, leaves this open text for us to
interpret the reading to our opinion. So that for a brief moment, we feel that we might have the
control, the say in something so important in our lives. In The Pain Scale, we can see how Biss
uses the same to prove her point and for us to be able to identify with the text. "If no pain is
possible, then another question- is no pain desirable? Does the absence of pain equal the absence
of everything?" (5). Is, life without pain, really life? Does feeling pain or knowing the emotion,
makes us more alive? Do we learn through pain and painful life experiences? Biss, gives the
reader the opportunity to explore the meaning of what pain truly is. Too think of it not only as a
physical feeling, but a necessity in our lives.
"Given its genre mingling, the lyrical essay often accretes by fragments, taking shape
mosaically - its import visible only when one stands back and sees it whole. The stories it tells
maybe no more than metaphors." Seneca Review. Rankine, "Why do people waste away?" (11).
She uses illness as a metaphor that our bodies can waste away and that it leads to our death. She

leaves it as an open question, for us to be able to answer according to our personal thoughts and
opinions. So that we can interpret why we think that this happens? why it brings us one step
closer to death. Biss, "The pain of feeling, the pain of caring, the pain of doubting, the pain of
parting, the pain of paying." (8). By using pain as a metaphor to different emotions in that we
feel, makes them alive. The reader is able to identify with the author the reader is able to go
back, to when they had these same feelings or emotions and know how the author feels at that
exact moment.
Both authors use allusion to help the readers connect with the reading. Rankine, "Or as
Gertrude Stein, who herself died of stomach cancer, points out..." (11). She expects the reader to
know who this person is, so that we can connect with what she went through as a person and
understand what we are reading. Biss, "Zero is not a number. Or at least, it does not behave like a
number. It does not add, subtract, or multiply like other numbers. Zero is a number in the way
that Christ was a man" (5) By using this allusion we are able to visualize and familiarize with
how the person feels or thinks.
"The lyric essay stalks its subjects like quarry but is never content to merely explain or
confess. It elucidates through the dance of its own delving." the Seneca Review. The Lyrical
Essay is written as an open text that lets the reader come to his or her own conjunction. It has no
linear structure, it lets the reader create his or her own meaning. It gives the reader the freedom
to interpret the meaning of each phrase. Unlike the conventional essay, this is why both authors
used this form in their writing. The Lyrical Essay, not only gave them the freedom to write what
their thoughts but, to give the reader the power of interpreting those thoughts with their own.

The imaginative and timeless form of the Lyrical Essay opens our eyes to what death and
living really are. It makes us question why we fear death. Why we are afraid of living and the
reason why pain is important to our existence. We learn that every moment of pain, is a lesson
and experience of being alive. It teaches us that true freedom is when we stop fearing death and
start living and enjoying our lives.

Works Cited
Rankine, Claudia. Don't Let Me Be Lonely. Graywolf Press.
Biss, Eula. The Pain Scale. http://www.snreview.org/biss.pdf
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Seneca Review: The Lyrical Essay.
http://www.hws.edu/academics/senecareview/lyricessay.aspx