Afterwards Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay

The poem is a meditation on death, but the speaker never once uses the words "death" or "die." How does he manage that? By using a slew of euphemisms to describe death, and by employing a lot of fi...

For all the euphemisms and metaphors describing death in this poem, there are a lot of more upbeat images of nature, life, and renewal, too. Thank goodness, or this poem would be depressing as heck...

Each of the stanzas takes place during a different season. The poet can't seem to make up his mind what as to what season he'll end up dying in, so he hedges his bets and imagines all the possibili...

If each stanza takes place during a different season and the whole poem is a meditation on death, you better believe that the passage of time is an important category here. Even the title of the po...