Question

Read the poem which follows and select the symbols and imagery of death that also appear in The Sweet Hereafter.

"Absence" by Amy Lowell

My cup is empty to-night,
Cold and dry are its sides,
Chilled by the wind from the open window.
Empty and void, it sparkles white in the moonlight.
The room is filled with the strange scent
Of wisteria blossoms.
They sway in the moon's radiance
And tap against the wall.
But the cup of my heart is still,
And cold, and empty.
When you come, it brims
Red and trembling with blood,
Heart's blood for your drinking;
To fill your mouth with love
And the bitter-sweet taste of a soul.


The cold

The darkness


the moonlight

The sweetness


The empty cup

Answer 1

Both pieces share symbols of death as it is seen in the use of the cold. Death makes corpses cold and also gives the idea of those we love going to some cold place , very far from those who remain on the world of the living.At the same time cold is the representation of an attitude, that of someone who cannot accept the blame of having caused somebody´s death.

Blood, though part of our anatomy, when spilt it is a symbol of death.The whole idea of blood, even when it is a stain, has a meaning more connected to death than to a living organism.Last , we feel doleful when somebody dies because we have blood running through or veins.The feeling of loss and absence is also represented by blood

Darkness is another symbol.Separated from the rest of the verses in the poem it appears in The Sweet Hereafter connected to the consequences of the Vietnam War , the critical financial situation of the country at the time of the tragedy and mostly the secret about the child abuse.In the poem it connotes the feeling of ignoring what is to come after death .

Sweet is resignation in the poem as it comes almost in the end.The same as in the novel , acceptance is represented by the word sweet.It means that what has happened , as hard as it is, accepting the absence caused by death means to continue living.