Down, Death: A Funeral Sermon

¶ … Down, Death: A Funeral Sermon The dominant figure of speech of "Go Down, Death: A Funeral Sermon" is that of personification, namely the figure of death personified as a man on a pale horse. The figure of death is personified to make death seem more benign and less frightening. Death is shown as a compassionate, invisible figure on a silent horse that takes Sister Caroline from a place of misery to heaven.

Death is shown to be a magnificent figure, riding past the sun and the moon and cooling the dead woman in his embrace as he takes her before God. Because Death is not terrifying and is the figure that brings humans to God in the poem, the reader is encouraged not to fear death in his or her more literal encounters with death in real life.

"Incident" "Incident" is a short poem which depicts the author as a young girl being called 'the n- word' for the first time in her life, when going to Baltimore for the first time. The shortness of the poem, in contrast to the length of her stay (almost the whole year, from May until December) underlines the potency of the incident, since the poet says that being called the racial slur is all she can remember of her journey.

This suggests that the incident was a turning point in the life of the poet -- it is her first encounter with prejudice, and it utterly defines her life from that moment onward. Question 2 "Anecdote of the Jar" The "Anecdote of the Jar" depicts a man-made object (a jar) that is a metaphor for the city that grows up in the wilderness of Tennessee. The wilderness sprawls around the jar.

However, despite the sleekness of the jar, there is something chillingly empty about it, because unlike the wilderness it does not "give of bird or bush." Because the wilderness is alive, it seems far more attractive than the tall, sleek jar that contains nothing. "Chicago" The city of Chicago is depicted as the "hog butcher of the world," filled with hungry people and "painted women." However, the poet sees this as a source of pride. He proudly admits to the reader that his city has many faults.

His stark language is attractive in its honesty and makes the reader believe him when he praises the city, because he has admitted it has an ugly side. Despite the negatives, Chicago is shown to be a city that is fundamentally, vitally alive. The images of the city are "fierce as a dog" and "cunning as a savage." Sandburg's terse adjectives and verbs create a sense of strength and brutal fascination that conventional praise would lack.

Question 3 The issue of race in "Go Down, Death: Funeral Sermon" is addressed indirectly rather than directly. The sermon is evidently being delivered to a black congregation. The suffering of Sister Caroline is shown to be uniquely black in nature because of the references to her suffering in the vineyards (cotton fields) for long, hot hours. Sister Caroline has furrows of care in her brow because of the suffering that is part of the African-American condition. Life is so hard that death is shown as a respite.

In contrast to the elevated language of "Go Down, Death: Funeral Sermon," the poem "Incident" is short and pithy. It directly addresses the subject of race, detailing how the poet was called a racial slur as a child, by a boy her own age. The poet describes herself as excited about going to Baltimore but her innocence is quickly shattered. The brevity of the poem underlines the fact that being called the 'n-word' was all she could remember of her trip to the city, from May to December.

This suggests the utterly life-altering nature of race in a far more direct fashion than "Go Down, Death: Funeral Sermon." It shows racism from the eyes of a child, who is angry about the world's condition vs. depicting an elderly woman who is resigned to the fact that her life is coming to an end and who hopes for a better life to come. Question 4 The motivations of Abigail Williams of The Crucible change end evolve over the course of the play.

At first, Abigail acts 'possessed' because she is afraid of being accused of practicing witchcraft herself, when her harmless divination with Tituba goes awry and causes herself and the other young participants to go into hysterics.