THE SUICIDE’S ARGUMENT
1.
INTRODUCTION
I’m going
to analyze a poem by Coleridge named “ The suicide´s
argument”. The poem was written in 1811,
but it was published in 1828.
(cf.http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Suicide_Arg.html).
In this paper, we are going to talk about a very dramatic poem written by
Coleridge. We do not know the exact personal moment in
which he wrote the poem, but we suppose that it should be when he started to
take drugs for his illnesses; he ran up with a considerable debt and tried to
commit suicide. Fortunately, he was rescued by his family. These were the most
tragic moments that he passed but his life before this happened was never good. He dealt with this poem to express his
feelings towards the suicide. He wants to show the reader his reflections and
feelings, what was happening in his life in that moment. By writing it, it
helps him to feel comfortable with himself and make the reader sympathize with
him.
The poem
was written in 1811, but it was published in 1828.
(cf.http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Suicide_Arg.html
)
________________________________________
Ere the
birth of my life, if I wished it or no
No question
was asked me--it could not be so !
If the life
was the question, a thing sent to try
And to live
on be YES; what can NO be ? to
die.
NATURE'S ANSWER
Is't
returned, as 'twas sent ? Is't no worse for the wear ?
Think
first, what you ARE ! Call to mind what you WERE !
I gave you
innocence, I gave you hope,
Gave
health, and genius, and an ample scope,
Return you
me guilt, lethargy, despair ?
Make out
the invent'ry ; inspect, compare !
Then
die--if die you dare !
(cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge)
3.
ANALYSIS OF THE POEM
The title
is very important to know what he is going to talk about. By reading it we can know that
he is going to deal with a very tragic situation (the suicide) and he is going
to give us the reasons that made him think of what he was going to do.
The main
theme is that of living or dying. That is, he is saying that the power to
engender a child should be asked to the child, I mean, that parents should ask
their children if they wanted to be born. And another theme is the suicide. The
reflections he does about commiting suicide.
This poem
consists of two stanzas. The first one goes from line 1 to 4. And the second
one would be from line 5 to 11. In the first stanza he is questioning why
nobody asked him if he wanted to live or to die. In this stanza we can also
find why he has chosen this title for his poem because when he says “what can
NO be? To die”, this is the purpose of what he wants to do. As
nobody asked him whether he wanted to live or not, now “to die” will be “to
commit suicide”. In the second
stanza he is doing an internal reflection contrasting the bad and good things
that life has given him. That is why he wrote “I gave you innocence, I gave you
hope, gave health, and genius and an ample scope, return you me guilt,
lethargy, despair?”. Eventually, when he had compared
both possibilities, he must think if he wants to die or not. That is why he
writes “Make out the invent’ry, inspect, compare! Then die, if die you dare”.
STYLE
COMMUNICATIVE STRUCTURE
We can say
that the first stanza only has the first person singular such as “I” (line 1)
or “me” (line 2) because he is talking about himself, he is telling the ideas
he has towards life. But in the second stanza we can find both first and second
persons. Such as “you”(lines 6, 7, 9, 11). And the first person singular like “I” (line 7). We see the second person
because it is the nature’s answer who is talking to the author of the poem
(telling the poet what “nature” has given him).
With regard
to the temporal structure we can say that there are both the simple present and
past tenses. Dealing with some examples of the simple past tense we can find
“wished”(line1), “asked, could” (line 2), “was, sent”
(line 3), “gave” (line 8) or “were” (line 6). And as examples of the present we
can see “live, can”( line 4), “are”(line 6) or
“die”(line 11). He uses the past when he is questioning that nobody asked him
if he wanted to live, whereas we find the simple present tense when he makes a
reflection of what he is now.
Dealing
with the connectors that we can find in the poem, we must say that it is full
of juxtaposition. Some examples are “If the life was the question, a thing sent
to try”(line 3), or “I gave you innocence, I gave you
hope” (line 7). But we can only see one example of coordination, that is “Gave health,
and genius, and an ample scope” (line 8).
The sentences are quite long but they are not difficult to understand because
there is no subordination and very few coordination.
We can find
repetitions such as the word “life” (line 3 and 1) or “live” (line 4) that it
is closely related with “life” (line 3), or the word “die” (line 4 and 11) and
also the verb “gave” (lines 7 and 8).
We can find
archaic words such as “Ere”(line 1), “Is’t” (line 5)
or “invnet’ry” (line 10). We can also see the lexical field of “positive
adjectives” like “innocence” (line 7), “hope” (line 7), “health” (line 8),
“genius” (line 8), “scope”(line 8) and that of “negative adjectives”, for
example “guilt” (line 9), “lethargy” (line 9), or “despair” (line 9).
Furthermore, we can find two antonyms such as “yes” (line 4) and “no” (line a)
and “live” (line 4) and “die” (line 4).
It haven’t got a clear rhythm so we can say that it has an irregular rhytm.
He was the last of 13 children, and
resented being the last child.
Once in a rage, he attacked one of his
brothers with a knife. He ran away, stayed outside and caught a fever which
left him ill for the rest of his life.
Spent most of his youth alone, reading, and
due to illness was not good at sports and was tormented.
When his father died, he was put in a state
school where the conditions were brutal, which forced him more and more to
retreat into a fantasy word of his own making--daydreaming etc.
He started to take drugs for his illnesses;
ran up a considerable debt, tried to commit suicide, but was rescued by his
family.
His home life was very unhappy, his
physical and mental afflictions increased as did his use of drugs.
(cf. http://www.stjohns-chs.org/english/Romantic/Rm-Cl.ttml
)
Having said this I am going to write my
personal opinion about the poem.
He starts
telling us that nobody had told him if he wanted to live or to die and that
this couldn´t be like that. Because, if someone wouldn’t want
to live it had to be asked. He could be saying that, because if he had
known how his life was going to be, he might have thought whether he wanted to
be born or not.
Then, in
the next paragraph, I think that he’s doing an internal reflection. He´s
thinking about the good aspects that life have given him such as “I gave you
innocence, I gave you hope, gave health, and genius, and an ample scope. And
the bad aspects such as “guilt, lethargy, despair”..
Finally,
in the last two sentences, it is related the conclusion of his internal
reflection. In the poem, we do not know if he thought several times of what he
was going to do, or if he (in that moment) would dare to commit suicide.
But, what
we know is that his family saved him from doing that tragedy.
Although,
the topic that he is dealing in the poem is quite tragic, if we analyze his
life, we could see that he must have been desperate when he wrote this poem.
And not only because he wrote it, but also because he tried to commit what he
wrote.
But, it
could also be because of taking drugs, that is, he had a lot of physical and
mental problems because of drugs so having written this poem could have been
because of this mental problems.
In order to sum up we can say that in this paper we have seen how Coleridge’s life has influenced his point of view towards life in the poem. We must remember that he experienced very problematic and difficult things in his life, such as that of wanting to commit suicide, or the debt that he had to pay so, in a way we can understand why had he written this poem.
The poem
“The suicide’s argument” is very dramatic but possibly, by writing it, he must
have time to think twice of what he wanted to do and I think that it reflects
very good this problem.
Eventually,
I have chosen this poem because I think that it deals with a very interesting
topic, even nowadays, and that he explains with strong arguments his internal
reflections.
6.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Suicide_Arg.html
Home:<www.etext.virginia.edu>22-11-06)
http://www.stjohns-chs.org/english/Romantic/Rm-Cl.ttml
Home:<www.stjohns-chs.org>22-11-06)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge
Home: < www.wikipedia.org>22-11-06)