Essay Questions

What is Michael Field’s outlook on Mortality? (“Beloved”)

Michael Field looks at mortality as an approving effectuation: “Mortal, if thou art beloved/Life's offences are removed;/All the fateful things that checked thee.” Mortality results in the erasure of the offenses that one committed during his/her lifecycle. Furthermore, mortality unchecks all the marks that were checked during an individual’s existence. Clearly, Field endorses that humans should not be alarmed by impermanence.

Deconstruct the line: “ Heaven itself is but the casket.” (“Beloved”)

Michael Fields employs irony by depicting Heaven as a terminal place that houses caskets. Ordinarily, in the framework of religion, one would anticipate heaven to be depicted as a deathless place and hell to be rendered as the casket. Nevertheless, Fields utilizes the symbolic casket to reveal the intersection between mortality and heaven. Based on Biblical revelations, mortal beings must transcend immortality for them to enter heaven.

What does the imagery of a rook in a nest affirm? ("Nest in Elms")

The rooks communicate about the beauty of leisure: “In rune I trace the ancient law of pleasure,/Of love, of all the busy-ness of leisure.” The rooks exploit the pleasure that is inherent in their nests. The rooks edify the reader on the materiality of relaxation. The rooks’ cawing is parallel to a vacation that discharges the tension that is in-built in the Elms. The nest is a tranquil vacation terminus.