Discuss How the Theme of Death Is Presented in ‘war Photographer’, ‘a Mother in a Refugee Camp’, ‘poem at Thirty-Nine’ and Three Other Poems We Have Considered in Class

Discuss how the Theme of Death is Presented in ‘War Photographer’, ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’, ‘Poem at Thirty-Nine’ and Three Other Poems we have Considered in Class

Discuss how the Theme of Death is Presented in ‘War Photographer’, ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’, ‘Poem at Thirty-Nine’ and Three Other Poems we have Considered in Class

The six poems can be split into two groups, one group being ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’, ‘War Photographer’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est. The other group is made up of ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’, ‘Poem at Thirty-Nine’ and ‘Remember’. The first group of poems present death and its relationship to war. The other group deal with family relationships, death and memory. ‘Mother in a refugee camp’ is a poem about a mother caring for her child in harsh conditions during a civil war in Nigeria in the 1970s. War Photographer’ considers the relationship between spectators of the war and those who directly experienced it, written in 1985 by Carol Ann Duffy. ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, Wilfred Owen 1917, writes about the reality of the war and how hard it was to actually survive. In ‘Do not go Gentle into the Night’, written in 1951 by Dylan Thomas, death is something that should be met with passion and energy rather than just accepting it. In ‘Remember’, by Christina Rossetti in 1862, the poet says that someone’s death should be remembered but should not take away from the rest of people’s lives. In ‘Poem at Thirty-Nine’ Alice Walker writes about her father and what he taught her, this was written in 1983. All six poems consider the importance of death and remembrance.

Chinua Achebe’s poem, ‘Mother in a Refugee Camp’, is about his experiences during the Nigerian civil war. In this poem she doesn’t focus on a soldier fighting on the front line, but looks at civilian experience during the fights. ‘Mother in a refugee camp’ has a very sad and dark mood to it throughout. We can sense this mood through the lexis of death, the words used are ‘grave,’ ‘skull,’ and ‘ghost.’ The start of the poem writes about how she cares a lot for her child when the poet says “No Madonna and child could touch/Her tenderness for a son”, this line represents her deep love and tenderness for her child is even more than the original Madonna who is seen as the epitome of a caring mother. Later in the poem Achebe writes that she combed his ‘rust-coloured hair left on his skull.’ The word ‘skull’ shows that the baby may have already died since it used to describe skeletons, this is an unusual choice of word for a baby’s head so highlights that Mothers find it difficult to care for their most loved ones in the dark times. ‘Skull’ could also mean that the baby is close to death due to malnourishment and the mother is still cradling the baby or is struggling to accept the fact that the child has died. We see that