Wake Up (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Raymond Carver
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Work: Narrative
- Genres: Poetry, Narrative poetry
- Subjects: Suffering, Immortality, Religion, Capital punishment, Punishment, Death or dying, Castles, Torture, Middle Ages, Switzerland or Swiss people
The Poem
“Wake Up” is a narrative poem divided into six sections. Most of the poem is narrative, but in section 5, the poet records a brief dialogue between the speaker and his female companion. The setting of the poem, Kyborg Castle, in Zurich, Switzerland, provides an occasion for the two speakers to contemplate human suffering and death.
The first section of the poem introduces the spatial setting: the dungeon of a medieval castle. There the speakers observe an executioner’s block, which sits near an iron maiden, one of a number of instruments of torture used in...
[The entire page is 1931 words long]
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