‫المادة‬

‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬

2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9

Modern Poetry
The Ship of Death
I
Now it is autumn and the falling fruit
and the long journey towards oblivion.

The apples falling like great drops of dew

to bruise themselves an exit from themselves.

And it is time to go, to bid farewell

to one’s own self, and find an exit
from the fallen self.

II
Have you built your ship of death, O have you?
O build your ship of death, for you will need it.

The grim frost is at hand, when the apples will fall

thick, almost thundrous, on the hardened earth.

And death is on the air like a smell of ashes!

Ah! can’t you smell it?

And in the bruised body, the frightened soul

finds itself shrinking, wincing from the cold
that blows upon it through the orifices.

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 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9

III
And can a man his own quietus make
with a bare bodkin?

With daggers, bodkins, bullets, man can make

a bruise or break of exit for his life;
but is that a quietus, O tell me, is it quietus?

Surely not so! for how could murder, even self-murder

ever a quietus make?

IV
O let us talk of quiet that we know,
that we can know, the deep and lovely quiet
of a strong heart at peace!

How can we this, our own quietus, make?

V
Build then the ship of death, for you must take
the longest journey, to oblivion.

And die the death, the long and painful death

that lies between the old self and the new.

Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised,

already our souls are oozing through the exit
of the cruel bruise.
Already the dark and endless ocean of the end

2
 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9
is washing in through the breaches of our wounds,
already the flood is upon us.

Oh build your ship of death, your little ark

and furnish it with food, with little cakes, and wine
for the dark flight down oblivion.

VI
Piecemeal the body dies, and the timid soul
has her footing washed away, as the dark flood rises.

We are dying, we are dying, we are all of us dying

and nothing will stay the death-flood rising within us
and soon it will rise on the world, on the outside world.

We are dying, we are dying, piecemeal our bodies are dying

and our strength leaves us,
and our soul cowers naked in the dark rain over the flood,
cowering in the last branches of the tree of our life.

VII
We are dying, we are dying, so all we can do
is now to be willing to die, and to build the ship
of death to carry the soul on the longest journey.

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930)

3
 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9

Something about D.H. Lawrence:

He wrote this poem between 1929-1930. During these years, he was
ill and suffered from Tuberculosis which is a deadly disease. So, he
knew that he would die after this bad disease. He also because
pessimistic he tried to think of death and of the coming life, death and
the afterlife.
The poem has a religious subject which is death that all of us will die
and his refers to the futility of life. So, he advises us to get prepared to
this journey and to the longest sleep which is death.

Why does he say "longest sleep"?

Because he believes in the afterlife and rebirth which is the eternal
life.
The nature cycle of life:
Life – Death – Rebirth
*The use of conceit which is a stretched image used by the
metaphysics to talk about death and the afterlife.

This appears when the poet compares human body to an apple and the
soul to the seeds of this apple.

Stretched is based on dissimilar objects.

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 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9
When autumn comes which is the season of death, the apple falls and
when it falls, the seeds are thrown out like when someone dies, his
soul goes out of his body.

What is the importance of the "Ship" in this poem?

The importance or the significance of the "Ship" is that the poet
compares the human body to the ship.
We have here a reference to Noah's ark. This people who get on the
ship survive. So, the ship is something which moves people to the
eternal life. So, the ship is like the human body.

Ship human body

Apple human body
Seed's human body
The ship as a symbol refers to salvation and eternal life, and we have a
comparison between the ship and human body, and the apple and
human body.

*These is a contradiction between waters in this poem and water in

"The Waste Land".
"flood" is a mean of death in this poem
"water" is a mean of life in "The Waste Land"

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 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9

The first stanza:

Now it is autumn and the falling fruit
and the long journey towards oblivion.
The apples falling like great drops of dew
to bruise themselves an exit from themselves.

And it is time to go, to bid farewell

to one’s own self, and find an exit
from the fallen self.
"autumn" is the season of death.
"falling fruit" refers to death.

"to bruise" means "to wound"

"exit" means path.
"to one's own self" means separation of soul from body.
"fallen self" means dying body.
Here we have the conceit or the comparison between human body and
the soul to the falling apple in autumn which is the season of death.

The main idea is autumn is the season of death. When apples fall, their
seeds are dropped into the earth. Each person passes through such a
period of autumn as the person undergoes a separation of soul from
body.

6
 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9

The second stanza:

Have you built your ship of death, O have you?
O build your ship of death, for you will need it.

The grim frost is at hand, when the apples will fall

thick, almost thundrous, on the hardened earth.

And death is on the air like a smell of ashes!

Ah! can’t you smell it?

And in the bruised body, the frightened soul

finds itself shrinking, wincing from the cold
that blows upon it through the orifices.
"ship" is a symbol of salvation and eternal life.
"built your ship of death": get prepared to death.
"frost" means unpleasing and it refers to death.
"thundrous" means noisy.
"hardened" means solid.
"a smell of shoes": means that death is spreading everywhere like
smoke.

"bruised" means damaged.

"orifices" means whole.

7
 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9
The poet here addresses the readers asking them to build their own
ship of death in order to get prepared for death.

The main idea here is that the poet calls upon readers to build a ship of
death to get prepared for death.

The season of frost has arrived and death is very close and the smell of
death is in the air. So, the soul shrinks within the body.

The third stanza:

And can a man his own quietus make
with a bare bodkin?

With daggers, bodkins, bullets, man can make

a bruise or break of exit for his life;
but is that a quietus, O tell me, is it quietus?

Surely not so! for how could murder, even self-murder

ever a quietus make?

There is a very important and highly religious idea which is suicide is

forbidden.

Man can commit suicide with a bare bad kind but it is like a wound
and it does not kill the self because it is just a path for soul to get out
of the body.

8
 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9
"but is that a quietus, O tell me, is it quietus?”This line mean that the
poet believes in afterlife.
"Surely not so! for how could murder, even self-murder ever a quietus
make?": how could a murder or even the one who murders himself get
peace or tranquility.
The main idea is that the poet questions the success of the suicide. He
does not believe that the murder of one's self could be rewarded with
the desired tranquility of death.

The fourth stanza:

O let us talk of quiet that we know,
that we can know, the deep and lovely quiet
of a strong heart at peace!

How can we this, our own quietus, make?

The main idea is that peace comes from a strong heart.

This peace does not come from suicide. So, get ready for the journey
of death.
"How can we this your own quietus make?" he doubts that suicide
may bring the desired peace.

The fifth stanza:

Build then the ship of death, for you must take

9
 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9
the longest journey, to oblivion.

And die the death, the long and painful death

that lies between the old self and the new.

Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised,

already our souls are oozing through the exit
of the cruel bruise.

Already the dark and endless ocean of the end

is washing in through the breaches of our wounds,
already the flood is upon us.

Oh build your ship of death, your little ark

and furnish it with food, with little cakes, and wine
for the dark flight down oblivion.

There is a call to prepare oneself for the death that is a part of a natural
process (birth-death-rebirth)

"long and painful death" these adjectives give an atmosphere of

melancholy and pessimism.

"old self and the new": this means that he believes in rebirth and the
afterlife.

"o o zing" means to get out with difficulty.

11
 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9
" Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised,
already our souls are oozing through the exit of the cruel bruise."
The fall from life is like the fall of the ripe apples in autumn.

*why does the poet use these material things like food, caked and
wine?

These material things are necessary for the ship which is our body
through which the soul will leave to oblivion.

The sixth stanza:

Piecemeal the body dies, and the timid soul
has her footing washed away, as the dark flood rises.

We are dying, we are dying, we are all of us dying

and nothing will stay the death-flood rising within us
and soon it will rise on the world, on the outside world.

We are dying, we are dying, piecemeal our bodies are dying

and our strength leaves us,
and our soul cowers naked in the dark rain over the flood,
cowering in the last branches of the tree of our life.

"piece meal" means gradually.

"timid" means coward.
"dark flood" is the flood that causes death.

11
 ‫المادة‬
‫الفصل األول‬ ‫شعر حديث‬ ‫ إنكليزي‬: ‫القسم‬
2019 / 2018 ‫المحـاضــــــــرة‬ ‫ الرابعة‬: ‫السنة‬
9
"and nothing will stay the death-flood rising within us": nothing can
prevent death from creeping to the weak body.
In this stanza, we have the idea of futility of human life which means
that all of us will die.
The main idea here is that each can experience in the body the decline
of nature as a bruising of human beings as a passage of the soul from
the weakening body.
" cowering in the last branches of the tree of our life."
He compares human life to a tree and he means by"the last branches"
the last breath.
The seventh stanza:
We are dying, we are dying, so all we can do
is now to be willing to die, and to build the ship
of death to carry the soul on the longest journey.

You have to accept your destiny willingly or unwillingly because it is

unavoidable.

The important idea, in this poem are death, religious and conceit.

Note:

The End

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