by Larry Fyffe
Love and death be oft associated with each other in the poems and song lyrics by artists with a Romantic bent.
In the poem quoted beneath, no fear of death there be even with grave doubts about there being an Afterlife:
How well I knew the light before I could not see it now 'Tis dying, I am dying But I'm not afraid to know (Emily Dickinson: I Am Dying)
Likewise expressed below, there’s scepticism about the existence of an ‘actual’ transcendental life after death:
Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from Don't even hear the murmur of a prayer It's not dark yet, but it's getting there (Bob Dylan: Not Dark Yet)
Below in the Gothic poem that’s “full of sorrow”, a person forsaken by the women he loves feels like he’s buried alive:
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne Clustered around by all her starry Fays But here there is no light Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown Through verdurous glooms, and winding mossy ways (John Keats: Ode To A Nightingale)
In the following song, not so filled with sorrow, her leaving likened to a temporary death suffered by the one who loves her:
One more night, I will wait for the light While the wind blows high above the trees Oh, I miss my darling so I didn't mean to see her go But tonight no light will shine on me (Bob Dylan: One More Night)
Far worse is getting blamed – falsely by others – for the death of a person (ie, Christ), and then consequently barred from an Afterlife should there be one:
I won't be with you in paradise And it seems so unfair I can't go to paradise, my love I killed a man back there (Bob Dylan: Spirit On The Water)
Nor is the poet quoted beneath concerned that the transcendental Afterlife isn’t like it’s depicted by orthodox Christianity:
Dead men naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon When their bones are picked clean, and the clean bones gone They shall have stars at elbow and foot .... And death shall have no dominion No more may gulls cry at their ears (Dylan Thomas: And Death Shall Have No Dominion)
Not only is it apparent the poet above steals from Bob Dylan’s name, but from the style and content of his song lyrics as well
As from:
Of war and peace, the truth just twists, it's curfew gull it glides (Bob Dylan: Gates Of Eden)
From this below too, Thomas thieves:
One day the man in the moon went home and the river went dry (Bob Dylan: Under The Red Sky)
Love and death, love and theft ~ that’s what it must be all about.