Tag Archives: death and dying

Finding a Relative in Gaskell’s Novels

Imagining my great-grandmother as heroines in a Gaskell novel brings both her and the novels to life.

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A Stevenson Poem for My Mother

My remarks and a Stevenson poem at an occasion remembering my mother.

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Don’t Mourn, Visit Paris Instead

At my mother’s memorial service Saturday we will hear the same Prévert song we heard at my father’s.

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Immersed in Krook’s Rag and Bone Shop

Going through my mother’s possessions is like a trip into Krook’s Rag and Bone shop in “Bleak House.”

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Methought I Saw My Dead Son

After unexpectedly dreaming about a son who died 22 years ago, I thought of Milton’s poem about a similar dream, this one involving his wife.

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O’Connor and Swift on the Death of Others

Friday While losing my mother at 96 is definitely not like Julian losing his mother in Flannery O’Connor’s “All That Rises Must Converge,” I can relate somewhat to his feelings of being adrift once she is gone. In his case, he is entirely dependent upon her, and embarrassed by her, and resentful of his inability […]

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Why Cry for a Soul Set Free?

Christina Rossetti’s “Let Me Go” guides those mourning a loved one and consoles those who are dying as well.

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Good Night, Sweet Lady

Tomorrow I will recite internally recite a passage from “Hamlet” when I pour my mother’s ashes into the ground.

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Learning about Death through Lit

In “Sons and Lovers,” there are bedside scenes that very much resemble our last days with my mother

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