Death shown in “Sonnet 73” and “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
... and growing up. In “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” even though the speaker refers to himself as “I” the last line shows that he is referring to himself in the third person. He is explaining what happens to him and what his actions are instead of how he feels in the present state. This throws the reader off into suggesting that the speaker dying is a hoax and that he actually imagines himself dying and the whole situation of being in war just occurring out of no where. The poem is too short to understand in what context the speaker is referring to his own self and how that relates to the subject of the poem. However, from reading the poem straight up it entails that the speaker is telling what happened from the viewpoint of him. The use of imagery shows how the speakers’ point of view are different in each poem. In “Sonnet 73” when the speaker notices the time of year “when yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang” (line 2) shows that he is observant signifying that he is thinking in his mind. The speaker also shows that he is quiet when he hears “bared ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang” (line 4) showing that little things like birds singing makes him think about his youth and his yester years. From the speaker’s perspective in “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” the speaker describes that he is “six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life” (line 3) and that he is around “black flak and the nightmare fighters” (line 4) showing that he is an intense situation. He is in a surreal place and it feels like a dream for him. Like in the last line where he explains “when I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” it’s like the speaker is explaining how he died acting like it happened in a dream where he saw it. Where as in “Sonnet 73” the speaker is quite aware of what is going on around him and he is at a more calm and thoughtful state. These examples of imagery bring out the speakers’ feelings about life and death and how it correlates to their own perception of life after death. A similar aspect presented in “Sonnet 73” and “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is the subject of death presented by both authors. Even though death is explained differently in the context of each poem, the reference to it creates a similar tone of life coming to an end. In Shakespeare’s sonnet the speaker entails that “ashes of youth die as the deathbed whereon it must expire”, explaining how aging only brings death closer. In “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” the speaker explains his whole death by saying, “when I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose”. Even though in this poem the speaker actually dies and in “Sonnet 73” the speaker feels death is near, the references create an idea of what the speakers are feeling about life and death. This idea creates a tone of life ending yet leaves a possibility of a new beginning. Even though the subject of death is shown in both poems, the way it is shown can be seen differently by the reader. Shakespeare relates death to darkness and calls darkness “death’s second self that seals up all in rest”. This metaphor shows how the speaker feels about the subject death, and that he feels death is closer every time darkness arises. This shows that the speakers thinks about death more and more as each day passes and he gets older. In “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” the speaker is “six miles from earth” showing that he feels like death is near when he’s detached from the earth and away from everything that’s real. This shows that the speaker from this poem is relating death to flying in a plane, away from everything and consumed with what’s...