O Death Rock Me Asleep by Anne Boleyn

Habsari Banoewati
0403508040

O Death Rock Me Asleep by Anne Boleyn

The poem: http://www.poetry-online.org/boleyn_anne_o_death_rock_me_asleep.htm

Anne Boleyn was a Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 and she is also the mother of Queen Elizabeth I and the second wife of King Henry Tudor VIII. She got executed because she had be accused that she had have affair with her brother. She sent to the tower before got executed. At that time she had wrote about poem called “O Death Me Asleep”. She believed that death will end her suffer so that’s why she named that poem like that. I choose this poem because it is about the real feeling of the Anne Boleyn that be supported by the theme and the literary device.
The general meaning of this is poem is about Anne Boleyn her self when she was in a tower. She waited her death that would come soon. This is irony because she felt happy and peace when she knew that she would got executed because from that her suffer will end so she would rest in peace but no one in this world would be happy when they knew that they are going to die.
The theme of this poem is there’s nothing you can do when the death is coming. It supported by the mood and the tone. The moods of this poetry are sad, dark, grieve-stricken, and lamenting. She wrote this poem with these mood because she knew that she going to die and the situation was really quite, only her in a room with a piece of paper and an old pen. These mood also makes the tone become desperate because how strong she is and no one could help so one thing that she could do are write the poem and resigned. This is romantic poem because she told all her felt before she died.
There are some literary devices in this poem. There is personification from the sentence “ Death, rock me asleep, Bring me to quite rest.” Death is like a human who can bring her to sleep and the reality is death is not a human but it acts like human in this poem. She uses “death” word because when human dead, the eyes are closing just like when they sleep so death can bring her to sleep. Metaphor in this poem it could find in the sentence “ Let pass my guiltless ghost” from the words “guiltless ghost”, is it metaphor of her feeling that let her guilty gone for ever. From the words “bell, knell, and tell” it shows a rhyme in every stanza because these words has same sounds which make this poem become more touching when people read it and has a melody on it, it means that she wrote this poem with her deepest heart.
Another literary device that the poem has repetition in every stanza from the sentences “Toll on, thou passing bell, Ring out my doleful knell, Let thy sound my death tell, Death doth draw night, There is no remedy”, she repeated these sentences because it means that the sound of the bell is sound about a death or bell is a symbol of the death. When the death is coming or the executed, the bell would ring. The repetition conclusion is “There is no remedy”, it means at the end, no one could help her from the death. The irony situation is from the sentence “Farewell, my pleasures past, Welcome, my present pain!” it shows that “Farewell” word refers to pleasures past that means her life before she was in tower, she had good life which could pleasure her. Usually “farewell” is for say good bye to something bad or not good but in this poem it is for happiness. “Welcome” word is refers to present pain that means she already not like she used to be and all the happiness that she has is gone. This word usually used to something good will come but in this poem it is for the bad thing will come. There is exchange word between that sentence that should be farewell for present pain and welcome for pleasure pain but because this is irony, the writer exchange it to make her feel strong.
From the unique theme which supported by the mood and the tone and the detail explanation about the literary devices which are about the reality life it shows how’s Anne Boleyn fought the fear of the death. She kept stronger that make me like this poem and she also dare to be honest that she was proven wrong and receive punishment.