Analysis & Significance: The Dead Man Walking
{"Image DocumentName": "Analysis & Significance: The Dead Man Walking", "Image ImageDescription": "Tone: The tone of the poem is depressed/gloomy. The speaker is in such great misery that he compares himself to a dead man. Theme: Despair. The speaker suffers from deep despair, dwelling only on the negative and seeing nothing at all in life to cheer him. Observing the questionable practices of others in the pursuit of their goals precipitates his gloominess. The loss of friends and loved ones, followed by his beloved s rejection of him, deepens his gloom. Unlike others who mourn losses and experience disappointment, the speaker seems unable to rebound. The poem appears to reflect the author s own tribulations. He endured criticism of his novels (most of which today enjoy the favor of critics), struggled with crises of faith, and had a troubled marriage. His marriage problems were partly due to his wife s negative reaction to his controversial novels\u2014such as Jude the Obscure, which attacks the institution of marriage. He and his wife became estranged, although he grieved profoundly for her after she died in End Rhyme: The second and fourth lines of each stanza contain end rhyme. All of the end rhymes are masculine except the end rhyme in lines 10 and 12, which is feminine. In masculine rhyme, only the final syllable of one line rhymes with the final syllable of another line. In feminine rhyme, the last two syllables of one line rhyme with the last two syllables of another line. In the feminine rhyme in lines 10 and 12, hour technically has only one syllable. However, it is pronounced as if it has two. It rhymes with a two-syllable word, bower.", "Image XResolution": "37", "Image YResolution": "37", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Centimeter", "Image Software": "SlidePlayer", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered"}