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Write a five-paragraph essay on three poems on the same theme, such as death.
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Critical Thinking Essay on Poetry
Death by suicide, racial hatred, and patricide are hauntingly portrayed in "Richard Cory,"
"Ballad of Birmingham," and "Oedipus the King." The poem Richard Cory portrays the theme of
death in a shocking manner because it comes as an unexpected action. All through out the poem
Richard Cory is portrayed as a man with many positive attributes and only in the last line does
suicide come in leaving the reader with that as the last thought. It is a painful irony for the
mother in the poem Ballad of Birmingham because she sends her daughter to where she thinks
she would be safest but her daughter ends up dying from the very thing she was trying to save
her from at the freedom march which is racial hatred. Oedipus ends up committing patricide the
very that that made him flee his home.
The theme suicide in Richard Cory is one that comes as a surprise. There is no reason
given as to why Richard Cory would want to end his life. His life all throughout the poem is one
that is shown to be filled with positive traits that everyone admires. “In fine, we thought that he
was everything.” (Robinson line 11). All through the poem there is no reason for the reader to
even think that the poem would have anything to do with death let alone suicide. For the fact that
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suicide is the last detail in the poem the reader is left with an unanswered question as to why
Richard would commit suicide (Dobie 52).
The poem Ballard in Birmingham stashes that racial hatred is pre...
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