The Intriguing Act of Facing Death

Abstract

Victorian Poetry thematically impresses on our minds its preoccupation with the obsessive and challenging reality of death. As it is, two Victorian Poems single out themselves as insistently dwelling on this thematic concern: Tennyson’s ‘’Crossing the Bar’’ and Browning’s ‘’Prospice’’. In ‘’Crossing the Bar’’, Tennyson, who seems to have a reconciliatory attitude towards death, sees it as a reassuring, natural and peaceful event. The poem is far from being sad. It vividly describes the poet meditating over his own death. In ‘’Prospice’’, Browning talks with his head held high as he intends to be reunited with his ‘’soulmate’’, his dead wife. Clearly, his attitude towards death is that of anticipation and of, almost, defiance.
It is important to see, after all, that the alarming theme of the two poems is channeled to address a disengaging reality that concerns us all.