Vincent Lee
Analysis
"I Have a Rendezvous With Death” by Alan Seeger informs of the poet's mind-set towards death. In the start where he uses the word "barricade," he is representing war to begin the poem. His poem goes on to develop on the concept of death through war and battle with the use of terminology such as "disputed" to recommend issue. The poet, returning to the trenches, connects a certain elegance and respectability to the concept of death by personifying it as a sensitive, looking after, individual partner (“It may be he shall take my side / And cause me into his black land”), therefore linking the connection between man and death and also creating it less horrific.
One occasion that scares abounding individuals, is death. Everyone is ready for unexpected activities in life, though there is no way to guess how and when they occur. No one, however, is ready to fulfill death, despite understanding completely well that it is not an unexpected occasion, but a guarantee. A rendezvous is not just an encounter. It is of free will, expected and often organized. It is associated not with worry or hate, but with friendly spirit and enthusiasm.
The comfort of human relationships compared with the silence and bareness of death - but the poet leaves us with no question that he will be real to his assurance to battle for his nation and meet Death at the appointed rendezvous come Spring in some "flaming town." The visuals of spring is normally associated with way of living, joy and great mood. It is a time when climate becomes pleasanter, new results in and vegetation begin to develop again and new blossoms appear. Imagery such as "scarred" allows to suggest concepts of discomfort as we contrast the flowery meadows with trench-dug dirty areas.
The first of the three stanzas of the poem is the most stunning because it attracts an unusual connection between birth and death. It forecasts the poet’s upcoming, yet brave death. The second presents the levels of death and the third states that the poet is not desperate to stay in his comfortable area like most others would do, but wants to take pleasure in maintaining his appointment with death at all expenses.
"I Have a Rendezvous with Death" is basically a poem of elegance and love, the poet’s lover being ‘death’. It is made on the anvil of war loaded with the flame of feelings. On one side, it shows a soldier’s jeopardizing his life on the battlefield with consideration, to be able to keep his pledge, as an act of bravery. However, the concept of the elegance of war and its brave prospective despite the poem not quite seeming to support war as something acceptable in itself.
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