Poetry Analysis- A Litany In The Time Of Plague Essay

ContextNashe is most celebrated as a pamphleteer. an odd c areer that now would see him go bads for some Chinese restaurant or another. In Elizabethan clock a pamphleteer was a bit more prominent as pamphlets were i of the most effective dashs to spread conceits or news across the country. Nashes pamphlets were apparently pretty controversial in theme and his rhyme in like manner caused a bit of a stir, see if you peck work out whyAnd hold back me happie, stealing by degrees. First everlasting(a) hir legs, then creepe up to her knees Unhappyie me, quoth she, and wilt not stand? Com, let me rubb and inconvenience angiotensin-converting enzymeself it with my handDo you really need to know this? No, but has it do you smile? No? Well, on with the relevant stuff thenSo, weve established he was a naughty boy and in no delegacy deserving of redemption, now lets talk about the downcast Death. It was a plague that swept around Europe for hundreds of years and is estimated t o direct killed 200 million people. At the time people were particularly entrap out by it because they had no idea what was causing it and thither was evidently no cure and people from all r individuallyes of life were effected equally Queen Elizabeth I was really scared of the plague and devised various quarantine measures to protect herself.You dejection imagine how an unexplained fatal disease cleaning every ane around you would make you a little terrified for your own life, feeling ilk the s vocalise of Damocles is hanging over you head and making you in earnest contemplate what happens following.ThemesThe big one present is obviously mortality, but it about associated with buybacks and thitherfore religious assurance could be considered here too.ContentRight, its six stanzas and itll feign forever to do if I go through in too much detail so youre liberation to open to be satisfied with an overview.Lets start with the title. The word litany is now quite commonl y used, but at the time was derived from and rivet on a service in a church. We can take a litany to be a series of prayers or the whole service, which aims to transmit a gist to a congregation listening to the priest or preacher delivering it.The first stanza clears us an overview of whats on Nashes head word hes a bit fixated on what he sees as the certainty of his approaching decease. He mentions how much fun and joy there is in the world, but sees them as being overshadowed and made to seem inconsequential by the shadow of death (Death proves them our joys all but toys) and our mortality. He tells us that none from his darts can fly indicating the inevitability of death we all know well die, but he seems to be implying that none can flying from death from the plague as he says I am sick, I must die as one inevitably leads to the other.The hobby four stanzas effectively say the same thing no one is safe from the plague and nothing will protect you. He starts morose by ad dressing the pie-eyed and assures them Gold cannot buy your health. Hes a little bit wrong here as wealth probably would ensure a bit of distance from the plague and the wealthy wouldnt live in the crowded, filthy and rat infested confines of the cities, so would probably be less likely. However, this is besides the point, hes sexual intercourse them their money wont keep them safe.Stanza 3 next addresses the graceful and warns them that wrinkles will devour them and their looks and that even beautiful Queens stick died young. He uses a classic allusion in Helen (the face that launched a thousand ships because she was so pretty the Greeks went to rescue her from her Trojan captors) as well to convey the idea of beauties dying(p) young and thus telling the young that even they are not safe from the plague.Strength and intelligence (wit) are the next two subjects. Even the most indicantful will eventually feed in for the worms, or rotting in the grave, again demonstrated with a classical allusion, this time to Hector (the Trojan hero). The intelligent are unable to surround their way out of their fate as Hells executioner, or the plague, has no ears for them to appeal to.So basically hes saying that everyone is screwed and there is nothing you can do to avoid the plague. That should give you an impression of people felt at the time this plague was more or less like a sign of judgement day as they didnt know what caused it, it punished everyone equally and it a particularly unpleasant way to die.But hang on There is one way we can be saved unfortunately it still requires us to die. Our only salvation is in heaven and Nashe is telling us to embrace our death, but make sure we have lived our lives in a way that will believe we can mount unto the sky and head off to heaven.Lovely Hmm address and techniquesHundreds of things to talk about, so dont feel confined to the fewer examples Ive chosen to zoom in on.First of all Id analyse the language used to des cribe the plague. We are told that none can escape its darts making our death seem like a certainty it travels full swift by as if it is an unstoppable wind and once were sick, we die confirming that once alter there is no hope. These associations suggest that humanity has no chance of survival against this mysterious and unexplained disease. past we have the really disturbing tomography about how people die. There is certainly no glory in death as we might believe as wrinkles devour smash or consumed and distort it, while the unb residueable are reduced to ludicrousweaknesses as worms feed upon their flesh with them unable to shake up back. These images both have a literal association with the plague as huge blisters often formed on victims making them quite repulsive, while victims were reduced to passing frail conditions thanks to fever and illness ( likewise suggested by the fact the strong stoop to the grave, almost unable to stand). However, these images are meant to shock us and make us scared of the disease and for our mortality.Id in any case mention how fatalistic the poet is. The plague did not effect everyone and yet we have an almost apocalyptic expression of the certainty of death that recurs throughout the meter again and again and again. Each stanza repeats the final two lines that link sickness absolutely with death and then beg for divine mercy, but we also get a unique element of the certainty of demise in each stanza 1st None from his darts can fly no one can escape from death/the plague. 2nd All things to end are made everything dies 3rd wrinkles will devour no suspense about decay. 4th Swords may not fight with fate you cannot fight fate, death is inevitable. 5th the first two lines less convincing here intelligence certain to be overcome by the bitterness of death.Then youve got that last stanza and the last line of each stanza. Lord, have mercy on us is a desperate plea to a higher power to make things better the n ext place they go, a plea for salvation and against being damned to hell. The whole of this stanza seems to indicate the importance of faith as were told To welcome destiny presumably by being virtuously good to please the lord, and that earth is just a players stage meaning that it is sort of a rehearsal or an auditory sense for the real deal of life in either heaven our heritage or hell.StructureWell, the first thing to say is that this is a litany. It is grade out as a prayer and deliberately sounds like one of those religious fables telling us how to live our lives ultimately with God and faith at the centre.We get the opening stanza setting the scene for the devastating push of theplague as if it is actually destroying the whole world, as if it is beckoning judgement day. The middle stanzas show us things that people rely on while on earth, but proves how useless these things are against death/the plague. Finally, we are given the message about how we can defeat this cert ain death by dying as good Christians and going to heaven.Ive already mentioned it above, but you could also discuss why the last two lines repeat in each stanza. Yes, it makes it like a prayer, but also it emphasises the certainty of death and the poet cannot escape this preoccupation with the end being nighTonePretty olive-drab as at every turn this guy wants to remind us and himself that he is certain to die and in a pretty dismal and debilitating way. However, there is also an element on preaching here as he is trying to tell us what we have to do be good and die horrible, but live on in heaven.