Anne Bradstreet

Both "In Memory of My Dear Grandchild" by Anne Bradstreet and "Meditaion 8" by Philip Pain express two contrasting point of views in relation to death. Bradstreet's diction and use of literary elements, such as metaphors and alliteration, are skillfully arranged throughout the poem which aid in making the theme of dying seem inevitable. Pain uses two different tones to create a turning point in his thoughts about halfway through his poem which gives the reader a better idea of his stages of feelings towards passing away. Each poet describes the theme of death according to their personal experiences and thoughts and makes whoever reads their work think about life in a different way. Life is precious and can not be wasted. Throughout Bradstreet's poem, she is very calm and accepting of her grandchild's death and her emotions are very controlled. This is probably because of her Puritan faith in which she practices the belief in heaven and in God, being the ruler of life. Although Elizabeth was
About midway through his poem, he becomes very aware and even afraid when he thinks about what it would be like to stop living. The original dismissal of death spells out Philip Pain's doom. He is overwhelmed, frightened and his "...pulses all would beat..." by the thought of not existing any longer and he is not very thrilled about eventually dying. Compared to Bradstreet's poem, Pain's is noticeably shorter, but he gets his point across easily. The deaths of others echoes in the nervous pulse of the poet who is "Drown'd in this deluge of security". By ending his poem with this line there is a sense of irony added from the word "deluge", which is a flood. His entire poem talks about dying and how he doesn't want to be susceptible to it, but he uses "Drown'd" where there is no escaping being