Exeat (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Florence Margaret Smith
- First Published: 1966
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Prisoners, Suicide, Death or dying, Life and death, Greek or Roman times, Torture, Rome, Tyrants or tyranny
The Poem
“Exeat” is a highly personal and disturbing poem that moves from a remembered history lesson to direct confrontation with the desirability and morality of committing suicide. The twenty-one lines of the poem are free verse, divided into four unequal sections. The first and last sections are the longest (seven and eight lines, respectively); the second is two lines; and the third, four lines. The title is a Latin word meaning “let him/her go out,” and leads directly to the opening idea of the “Roman Emperor.”
In the first five lines of the poem, the...
[The entire page is 1248 words long]
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