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Thursday, May 6, 2010

Death, The Leveller

A poem from the childhood days, more relevant today, especially after the Kasab judgement was delivered.



Death the Leveller


THE glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against Fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and Crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill:
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still:
Early or late
They stoop to fate,
And must give up their murmuring breath
When they, pale captives, creep to death.

The garlands wither on your brow,
Then boast no more your mighty deeds!
Upon Death's purple altar now
See where the victor-victim bleeds.
Your heads must come
To the cold tomb:
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.


By James Shirley
1596-1666


9 comments:

  1. hey if u am not wrong we had this in our syallabus in school..... dont remember which year though... "Lay icy hands" always used to come in identifying figure of speech question.....I dont remember which figure of speech this it :)

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  2. @Chirag...yeah this was in the Balbharati text book....:)....

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  3. hey there ..... Upon Death's purple altar now,what does this line means , and what exactly the word purple means here, does this adjective have a double meaning ???
    Answer me please !!!!

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    Replies
    1. Well, purple can straightaway mean the color of dead person after some hours of being dead......also in most visualization of a personified death, Purple is a dominant color.That is as far as I know, the significance of the color.

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  4. 1-in line 9.how can men reap the field with swords????

    2_in line 12.(they tame but one another still )paraphrase it into straightforward prose?

    .. can you please answer me for the previous two questions , i need them for the literature exam
    i would really appreciate your help .

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  5. Purple altar signifies death and blood.tame each other the warrior may try to evade death and death tries to conquer him.one day allwill have to succumb to death.a farmer reaps the field and plants anew just like that a warrior reaps heads and receives laurels .hope this explanation helped you

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  6. Purple altar signifies death and blood.tame each other the warrior may try to evade death and death tries to conquer him.one day allwill have to succumb to death.a farmer reaps the field and plants anew just like that a warrior reaps heads and receives laurels .hope this explanation helped you

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  7. Purple = Red + Blue

    Red signifies the blood of the common man. It is the blood of the farmers or the so called less worthy ones
    On the other hand, Blue signifies the blood of the royalty.

    So by combining the meanings, it is evident that Death's purple altar means that in His perspective both the royalty and the common man is thee same. Equality prevails above all His world.

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    Replies
    1. How do you know blue symbolizes the blood of the royalty? Also do you know what "pale captives" is referring to and "victor-victim"? I kind of have an idea about victor-victim, but not pale captives.

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