Death
Death is by far the most prominent theme of “Aubade.” As he lies awake at night, the speaker cannot escape obsessive thoughts of death and dying. He views death, particularly the idea of “total emptiness for ever,” with overwhelming fear—feeling nothing forever terrifies him. Furthermore, the refuge poets have often found in religious conceptions of an afterlife or a courageous battle against death are empty to him. For example, in the third stanza, he dismisses religion as “moth-eaten,” and in the fourth stanza, he declares that “being brave/lets no one off the grave”—essentially, even facing death with dignity doesn’t make it disappear.
Isolation
“Aubade” finds its speaker alone in bed in the middle of the night. The nocturnal setting of the poem adds to its sense of isolation—as the only one awake, perhaps in his entire neighborhood, the speaker is especially alone. In addition, death, which preoccupies the speaker, will eventually have to be faced alone as well. The poem’s title refers to a poem about lovers parting, and while there is no literal departure in the poem, it’s clear that the speaker’s mind is on his eventual departure from the world and those he loves when he dies. Furthermore, the speaker doesn’t seem to have much of a social life—he drinks alone, and notes that his obsession with death is strongest when other people aren’t around.
Religion
Religion is explicitly mentioned only briefly in “Aubade,” but it—or the lack of it—hovers over the whole poem. The speaker’s confidence that death will bring only nothingness is a clear rejection of the idea of an afterlife, a concept preached by many religions. Additionally, the speaker devotes much of the third stanza to his thoughts about religion, which he says “used to try” to take away people’s fear of death. He deems it a “vast moth-eaten musical brocade,” suggesting that while it’s beautiful like a brocade (a type of intricate fabric), it’s nonetheless old-fashioned and flimsy like an old moth-eaten sweater. To the speaker, religion was simply created in order for people to “pretend” they would never die through the dream of an afterlife, and he cannot find real solace in it.
