Symbolism In A Refusal To Mourn The Death

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After the analysis of the poems with central symbol of parent – mother and father, this following analysis explores another symbol – the image of child represented by both authors in their poems. Dylan Thomas wrote “A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London” in 1945 in his Deaths and Entrances. Thomas is known for operating with the imagery of death in his works. This particular poem deals with the death of a child that have been attacked and killed in London during the World War II. Speaker of the poem moans the senselessness of this decease and refuses to mourn the death as if this mourning was desecration of its sanctity. (CABRAL, 2005, p.7) The child that the poem is about is not some well known figure of that times or relative to the author. He wrote a poem about a strange girl that have been killed. Despite this no relation to her, he express his affection and emotions about this death. The typical style of Thomas´ is…show more content…
The reader is still aware of this condition of a child and that the poet refuses to mourn. Symbol of London’s daughter is reference to the child that was killed in London, the grains may stand for the human race. Unmourning water is a reminder that despite the death, water do not mourn, because it is a part of natural world, as is a human being and water knows that it is no reason to mourn because of the cyclical aspect of life of everything living. This idea of eternity of the nature and human soul is expressed through the whole poem, combined with the elements of religion and Christianity as was supported by analysis of Cabral and Rukhaya. The symbol of child is not used as reference of innocence or another primary definiton of this symbol, but here in this poem it stands for life not blossomed yet that was taken away but author refuse to mourn it, because he knows that the life is eternal. He also feels rage against this senseless death of a life that almost did not started
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