Robert Graves' poem Escape came out on August 6, 1916 and is about an Officer that was previously reported to have died of wounds, and that was now reported wounded, that seems to be Graves himself. The poem holds a lot of allusions, interesting punctuation and a powerful theme.
The allusions in this poem are overwhelming. Most of them refer to Greek mythology, like 'Ceberus' and 'Lethe'. Ceberus is mentioned several times. In the Greek stories, he's a three-headed hound who guards the doors of the underworld to prevent those that have crossed the river Styx to ever escape again. He describes Ceberus to 'stands and grins above me now, wearing three heads - lion, and lynx and sow'. He then goes on and fights Ceberus by cram its mouth with army biscuit smeared with ration jam', symbolizing that he conquers death and goes back to the living. Lady Proserpine, who is also mentioned in the poem refers to Persephone, the queen of the Greek underworld. He describes that she's the one who saves him by sending him back to the world of the living, even though that makes the hosts of the underworld very furious. The Greek mythology in this poem is very pertinent, and Graves uses it to put his near-death experience into metaphores and images.
The punctuation in this poem helps creating an image of helplessness and being lost. A lot of elipses are used like 'I said. ... Cerberus stands and grins above me', and 'Stolen!...No bombs...no knife. ... The crowd smarms on,...[...]'. By using all these elipses, he creates a sense of suspension and gives the poem a breath pattern. It is very possible that Graves wrote this poem to read to his little daughter, which would explain the fact that he would make it more suspense-full and entertaining to her by adding all these pauses and halts. He even starts the poem off with three points, creating the notion of being dead and awakening in another world after an hour of thinking he was dead.
The theme of this poem is very personal, as he talks about his near-death experience that is very close to his heart. He might have written this poem to his daughter, which explains the punctuation, as well as the entertaining diction and words such as 'poppy', 'snore' and 'apple', which a little kid can easily relate to even if she doesn't understand the true meaning of the poem. This poem is very interesting in terms of allusions, punctuation and theme and it is a good representation of Graves' usual writing style.
The allusions in this poem are overwhelming. Most of them refer to Greek mythology, like 'Ceberus' and 'Lethe'. Ceberus is mentioned several times. In the Greek stories, he's a three-headed hound who guards the doors of the underworld to prevent those that have crossed the river Styx to ever escape again. He describes Ceberus to 'stands and grins above me now, wearing three heads - lion, and lynx and sow'. He then goes on and fights Ceberus by cram its mouth with army biscuit smeared with ration jam', symbolizing that he conquers death and goes back to the living. Lady Proserpine, who is also mentioned in the poem refers to Persephone, the queen of the Greek underworld. He describes that she's the one who saves him by sending him back to the world of the living, even though that makes the hosts of the underworld very furious. The Greek mythology in this poem is very pertinent, and Graves uses it to put his near-death experience into metaphores and images.
The punctuation in this poem helps creating an image of helplessness and being lost. A lot of elipses are used like 'I said. ... Cerberus stands and grins above me', and 'Stolen!...No bombs...no knife. ... The crowd smarms on,...[...]'. By using all these elipses, he creates a sense of suspension and gives the poem a breath pattern. It is very possible that Graves wrote this poem to read to his little daughter, which would explain the fact that he would make it more suspense-full and entertaining to her by adding all these pauses and halts. He even starts the poem off with three points, creating the notion of being dead and awakening in another world after an hour of thinking he was dead.
The theme of this poem is very personal, as he talks about his near-death experience that is very close to his heart. He might have written this poem to his daughter, which explains the punctuation, as well as the entertaining diction and words such as 'poppy', 'snore' and 'apple', which a little kid can easily relate to even if she doesn't understand the true meaning of the poem. This poem is very interesting in terms of allusions, punctuation and theme and it is a good representation of Graves' usual writing style.
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