Immortality Through Our Children

Immortality Through Our Children

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English 101

24 October 2011

Last Name 1

Immortality Through Our Children

The poem being interrupted "My Son My Executioner", by Donald Hall. The following is the first stanza of the poem:

"My son, my executioner,

I take you in my arms,

Quiet and small and just astir,

And whom my body warms." (1-4)

The first stanza is communicating the idea of how children are so seemingly innocent and dependent. In the second line taking someone in your arms is showing love and nurturing. The next line refers to when children just begin to learn to walk and are unable to truly contribute in a way other than providing someone to love and care for. And the last line emphasizes the dependence that children have on their parents.

The second stanza is the following:

"Sweet death, small son, our instrument

Of immortality,

Your cries and hungers document

Our bodily decays." (5-8)

Lines (5-8) is trying to convey how people can live forever through their children. If the subject is given a small amount of thought it is surmised that if a small part of us continues to thrive and function, such as our children, that a parent is truly immortal.

Last Name 2

The second half of the stanza embellishes the way children can complain and the accompanying cacophony of sound when a child is disappointed. Also the second stanza covertly hints at how a child can literally wear you out and drain you of energy required to care and entertain a child.

The third stanza is the following:

"We twenty-five and twenty-two,

Who seemed to live forever,

Observe enduring life in you

And start to die together." (9-12)

This stanza initially gives us the age of the parents specifically mentioned in the poem 25 and 22. With the second line the poem elaborates on the feelings of imperviousness that younger people seem to exhibit and their lack attention given to future and looking towards the moment.

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