Ignorance is Bliss – “On A Friend’s Escape From Drowning Off The Norfolk Coast”
In the poem, a man is nearly drowning in the sea during a family trip to the beach. His son, who is playing in the sand, can clearly see and hear his father’s struggles, but is unimpressed by them. Instead, he keeps playing, likely thinking that the father is playing as well. Eventually, the man is saved by the mother, who was asleep. As both adults are lying on the ground, traumatized by the experience, the boy simply laughs at them.
One theme of the poem is how ignorance is bliss. The boy is oblivious to the fact that his father nearly died, which would have had grave consequences for his family. Instead, he chooses to see his parents’ behavior as playful, laughing at them after the crisis has been adverted.
Death – “At Thurgarton Church”
The prevalent theme in the poem is death. The speaker visits the church on an evening in December (both of which are the ending phases of something and therefore symbolize death). Even the church itself is ‘dead’, no longer used for its intended purpose and slowly falling to ruins. The graveyard outside the church has an atmosphere that is almost aggressively focused on the dead. The nature around, in winter, has lost the fight against death as well, lying bare, frozen and passive.
The only thing alive is the speaker himself, who, over the course of the poem, is influenced by the atmosphere. While inside the church, he feels as if he has died himself (cf. l. 33) and this, paradoxically is the only thing that motivates him to finally get up and join the rest of the dead in the graveyard outside.
Persistence - "Sonnet To My Mother"
In the poem the speaker, who appears to have died, is thinking about his mother and her endless strength and persistence. Persistence is the main theme in the poem. The speaker describes how nothing can shake her or her habits. She is always calm, always composed and always offers comfort to those weak and needy around her. In the end, this is what makes the speaker believe that she will also survive and persist after his death, and will eventually be able to live her life again.
