Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep: A Formalist Reading ANAGHA BIJU College

The theme of death and afterlife is a common trope in many works and different poets interpret it in multiple ways. The poem "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" by Mary Elizabeth Frye talks about the theme of life after death, but in a very realistic manner unlike invoking images of heaven or hell or the outer realm. The poem rather presents the view that the person after his or her death seems to be around in nature all through, within the realm of the earth. Thus in the poem, death is not depicted as something perplexing or mystifying but just a transformation of the soul, otherwise in a physical constrain of the body, to the soul present in every aspect of nature, wherever it chooses to be.

This lyric poem is written in twelve lines within a single stanza and in the rhyme scheme of aabbccddeeff with each pair of consecutive lines rhyming; presenting a simple rhyme scheme common enough and in the fashion of the most basic form of rhyme scheme. Such a rhyme scheme may be intended to show that the process of death and afterlife is just a simple customary affair and nothing to be written about in a unique manner- either subverting the forms or developing new techniques.

An authoritative, commanding tone sets the initial mood of...