Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Crowe Ransom
- First Published: 1924
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry, Elegy
- Subjects: Girls, Children, Death or dying, Funeral rites or ceremonies, Birds, Bells, Geese
“Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter” shows Ransom's pattern of addressing ultimate metaphysical issues and using the conventional quatrain form to impose order that distances speaker and reader from the emotions involved. The occasion for the bells is the funeral of John Whiteside's daughter. This poem is her elegy, and the speaker represents the community, describing everyone's astonishment at her unexpected death.
The poem refuses to dwell on the present and the girl's death, focusing instead on the past and her active life. The first line establishes the contrast between...
[The entire page is 563 words long]
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