Critical Analysis Of “The Pardon” Essay, Research Paper
Death and life are intertwined in such a way that one cannot come without the other. Richard Wilbur uses graphic description to clearly express this in his work “The Pardon,” through a series of events that ultimately bring a man to learn to mourn, after causing him a lifetime without love. As a young boy, the speaker is traumatized by the death of his dog, and is thus lead to pursue a life that lacks both love and the recognition of death. As an older man, the speaker comes to terms with his losses as he sees the dog in his sleep. During this nightmare, it is evident that the sole purpose of the dog’s returning is to haunt the narrator for the mistake that he made. While the nightmare is just as frightening as dealing with the death of a dog, it was frightening in a more positive way. Towards the end of the poem, Wilbur brings the reader to sympathize with the narrator once again, as the narrator finds that it is most important to appreciate death as another step in one’s journey through existence.
As a young and naive child, the speaker was shocked by the death of his dog. In just ten years of life, he had not been exposed to anything that has had such a personal impact. Wilbur is meticulous in choosing his lyrics as to convey a negative tone at the start of the poem. The vivid imagery of the “thick of summer” (line two) and “a jungle of grass and honeysuckle-vine” (line three) draw us into the scene, and we begin to feel afraid of the dog as well. Such strong description negates any doubt that this expressive scene disgusts the reader. The speaker himself cannot bring himself near the “twine of a heavy odor” (of a corpse, line seven), or the “flies’ intolerable buzz,” (line eight). With such detail, Wilbur clearly communicates the importance of death to the reader, even though the boy does not seem to understand. The boy is only allowing himself to be exposed to the sweeter scent of the honeysuckle, which symbolizes his reluctance to accept death. As a young ten-year-old, the loss of a dog would change the narrator’s life significantly. Death something that he had never experienced before, and to make it worse, it was happening to and individual which he had loved and had grown extremely close to.
The speaker openly tells us that he had been afraid. This fear that is instilled in him was the seed for his inability to find love not only in life, but in death as well. Because he knew nothing of death thus far in his life, he was so hurt by the loss of the dog that he stopped loving it. The narrator was unable to find it within himself to forgive anybody for taking his companion away from him, and at the same time, he went on to push away all affection and care in his life; “And I could not forgive the sad or strange in beast or man” (lines 11-12). In doing this, he was able to avoid dealing with the cruelty of death another time. There was no room inside of him to forgive for all of the pain that he had to carry. From the point that his father “took the spade and buried [the dog]” (lines 12-13), the narrator began to live his life stoically and plainly, never stopping for love or to enjoy his years. This is apparent because at the end of the poem we will see that he expresses his remorse for his past, and longs to mourn and love once again.
At this point, the poem takes a turn. After devoting so much time to such an unfulfilling life, the narrator dreams that he is once again at the revolting scene of his dog’s rotting corpse and burial. He again perceives the reincarnated dog as a symbol of death as a part of life, but as an older and more mature man, he now begins to accept it instead of pushing it away. True, he confesses fear once again in lines 16-17 (”I confess I felt afraid again”), but at this point, he understands the importance. Instead of seeing just a carcass laying dead in a clump of pine trees, there is life within the beast, and the surroundings are teeming with vegetation; a “fierce and mortal green,” (line 15). The dog’s body was no longer covered with “intolerable” flies, instead with a “hymn of flies,” a much more energetic image. In line 16, the speaker also adds that he saw the dog emerging. Although the scene may seem very vivacious, the dog is not literally coming back to life, as it is only a nightmare. There is still a look of death growing in his eyes, as lively as they may appear; “death was breeding in his lively eyes,” (line 19). This critical image expresses the point that life and death are one, they come hand in hand. The dog was once alive, but took the next step into death. He now comes back into the world to express this importance to the narrator.
The boy was once afraid when his dog died. Now a man, despite having lived a life without love, he is scared again as he has this dream and is brought face to face with his dog. “I started in to cry and call his name,” (line 20). He is frightened because he is finally dealing with exactly what caused him to live his life in the painful manner that he did. Imagine experiencing what the narrator has. Seeing a lost loved one emerge from their grave, right before your very eyes, “glowing with a fierce and mortal green,” (line 15). The “carnal sun” (line 18) and the breeding of death in the dog’s eyes in line 19 assist in producing a horrific feeling once again. This scene of a reincarnated dog helps him make sense of the relationship between life and death, instead of just putting it behind him or burying it within himself. Death is not a punishment, nor is it meant to hurt. Of course, to an innocent and impressionable ten year old, it is very horrific and painful. As it is seen in this case, death can also be scarring. In reality, though, it is only the next step of life, and while we may dwell on it, we should not do so to the point of losing the ability to feel for those we have lost. Although everything living will die at some point, that does not mean that the deceased should be abandoned or disregarded. The memory and continual love for the deceased is often a more effective way to cope with the loss. Harboring a fear of death causes a life without vivacity and love, and replaces it with a fear of losing more, as seen in the narrator’s case.
This one dream caused the speaker to process his situation and come to terms with how he had lived his life. Unsure of whether he can be forgiven for his coldness towards the dead, nonetheless hopeful that he can be, he begs for mercy and pardon. He knows that in actuality, to live with love, one must “mourn the dead” (line 24) and not repress loss. He pleads with “death” (symbolized by his dog in the dream) to forgive him, as he knows that death is what he has offended most by completely closing it out from his mind. Understanding what he had done wrong, the narrator can now care more freely and live more positively. He can “mourn the dead.” More importantly, he can love past the event of death, knowing that it is only the natural course of all existing individuals. We too would feel the need to beg for pardon. We all yearn to love, so in the final line, when the narrator tells us that he has learned to mourn the dead, we can identify with that, as we would as well.
As a whole, this poem exemplifies a journey from innocence to reality over the course of many years. The poem is also the recognition that death is not an endpoint. The shock of death impacted the inexperienced young boy so greatly that he was caused to live an entire life through the eyes of an innocent ten-year-old who did not know of loving or mourning. Until his dream, the narrator was denying of death. One single experience, however supernatural as it may have been, exposed the man to reality and changed his views forever. The knowledge that life can be found within death caused the author to change. He was once unable to “forgive the sad or strange in beast or man,” although now he begs for “death’s pardon.” This poem is the maturation of a close-minded young boy into a loving man. Whether this man can be redeemed from all that he lost in his life, it is unknown.