Tuesday 22 November 2011

Robert Graves and Escape

In Escape, we see Robert Graves's true feelings come to light. We see an AABB rhyming scheme, which helps us to understand the feelings that Graves is trying to show in the poem. It shows that he is trying to make the poem a little bit more readable, and flow more off the tongue, to contrast the terrifying imagery of the poem itself.


This terrifying imagery is added to through the use of mythological diction, including terms such as "Lady Proserphine' and 'Cerberus'. These are terms that typically are found in Greek mythology and relate to the realm of Hades, the god of Death. This shows what the main theme of the poem is, and also what the main idea of the poem is. The main theme is that of the ever-presence of death, and the main idea is that Graves is escaping death's grip on him.

Along with the blatant religious metaphor, we see some allusion to Grave's real life after his injury. We see what was going on in his mind when he was injured in the war. He believed that he was going to die, and this poem chronicles what he believes he saw in that time, although in a probably fictionalised manner. We see mention of Graves thinking that Cerberus is an enemy, and that he tries to shoot him. W then also see the use of the "all-powerful poppy", which is a relation to morphine, a powerful painkiller. The sentence where Graves references the morphine seems to bring the poem back to reality, if only for an instant, which helps the poem to carry more weight.

What also adds to this weight is the first two lines of the poem, which mentions the actual death of Graves. These first two lines make it seem as if Graves is writing from beyond the grave, and that again adds a layer of terror and weight to the poem. Overall, it seems as if this is the whole point of the poem. Graves is showing how terrifying it is to believe that you are dying, and shows this to us in a way that seems very real and poignant. This is done to warn that war is not all fun and games, and that it can utterly terrify you and leave you scared beyond all imagination.

2 comments:

  1. Do you think the use of religious metaphors and allusions to Greek/Roman Gods are more significant? At the time most people in England would have believed in Heaven or Hell yet Graves goes against this belief and makes it seem that you go to Hades no matter what. It would have been pretty controversial.
    Maybe you can expand on the idea. :)

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  2. James,

    This is a well written post, but I agree with Conor.
    Don't you feel that Graves holds a perception that all soldiers are immoral and hence flow down Lethe to the Underworld? What is this notions impact on the tone and overall central purpose of the poem? I feel that Graves may be subtly condemning the nature of the war and the actions of his fellow soldiers. How would you respond to this idea?

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