Poem 6 - The Rest

The Rest
By : Margaret Atwood
The rest of us watch from beyond the fence
as the woman moves with her jagged stride
into her pain as if into a slow race.
We see her body in motion
but hear no sounds, or we hear
sounds but no language; or we know
it is not a language we know
yet. We can see her clearly
but for her it is running in black smoke.
The cluster of cells in her swelling
like porridge boiling, and bursting,
like grapes, we think. Or we think of
explosions in mud; but we know nothing.
All around us the trees
and the grasses light up with forgiveness,
so green and at this time
of the year healthy.
We would like to call something
out to her. Some form of cheering.
There is pain but no arrival at anything. 

Analysis
            In the poem, The Rest, Atwood talks about the theme of facing the reality of death. For example, Atwood says, "as the woman moves with her jagged stride
into her pain ", which suggests that the woman is in pain away from the crowd and has rigid movement - meaning that the woman is dead. Simile is used to make a comparison between the woman's movement into pain to a slow race on lines 2 - 3. The meaning of the simile is that the woman was slowly progressing towards her death. In addition, another simile is used to compare the woman's cells' condition to a porridge that is boiling, which suggests that the woman's cells are exploding and are in an attempt to leave the pain. Moreover, the personification of the grass - " the grasses light up with forgiveness " - suggests that the author's feelings of mercy towards the poor woman by putting the feelings of forgiveness into the grass (a non - living object). The literary devices in this poem are great at showing comparisons to better analyze the depth of the author's message and also has personification to allow better understanding of the author's feelings for the readers.
            Now making connections to myself on this topic, sometimes I imagine what my last breath would be like. Will it hurt or not? Well I have no idea to that and hope that my death will be an easy one. However, I have no experience to that as it is the ultimate experience after which you are free from this evil world. My thoughts on this topic are similar to the author's - " but we know nothing " - that shows that I connect to the author to what she is saying and that I can experience her feelings through my connection of unknown to the experience of death between both me and the author.
            The meaning of this poem is to show a woman who is dead and other alive humans watching her but they can only watch but not understand her feelings and what she has gone through as death is something that everyone is unknown to until it knocks and your time's up. Humans try to cheer the dead woman but she has already gained freedom from pain and suffering. As an activist, Margaret Atwood is possibly light on a woman who was abused and eventually died - telling her painful journey but the peace she attained was from death. Someone would write this poem to show the collapse of communication between the dead and alive and how alive just wonders or grieves at the dead. The purpose of this poem is to help humans of death which is a truth that may not be denied and upon denial cannot be made false.

            I agree with the author as Death is a truth of life. If death was not there, society will not be stable as there would be too many humans to share the resources and result into hunger and high malnutrition. I also agree to the author's perception of we knowing nothing about death. Death is a phenomenon upon which life is declared over. There is only one such moment experienced by an individual during their lifespan. Therefore, other humans cannot feel how the dead felt like and makes the awkward situation between the alive and dead as the communication breaks and there is no describe of the feeling yet till today so everyone is kept unknown until their last breath. I also agree to ideology of being at rest once a person dies as they have no relevance to what is going on around the world. Thus, the poem, The Rest, refers to the rest one achieves once they are dead and free from the busy schedule of life, is a great piece that makes the readers of their last breath and maybe make them a bit tensed thinking about the moment but don't panic. Just live life to the fullest. Don't run after success - achieve excellence and success follows.

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