HOW DID YOU DIE?
Answer the following questions in a sentence
or two
1) What is the theme of the poem?
Ans: Theme of the poem is Life: The point of this poem has nothing to do with
death, but life.
2) What is the view of the poem about
problems of life?
Ans: The poem seems to be justification for one's life. Through the poem Edmund tries to show
readers that life is
more significant than death. One should live his life to the fullest facing
all the challenges and
defeat as stepping stone of success.
3) What are the suggestions of the poet to
overcome failure?
Ans: The wisdom and the courage to deal with ordeals and troubles of
life in the ideal manner.
4) What makes the trouble big or small?
Ans: Attitude of a person makes the trouble big or small.
5) What is the disgrace according to the
poet?
Ans: Falling is normal, but to continue to lie there is disgrace
according to the poet.
6) What matters in the death ultimately? Ans: Whether we died like a coward or like a courageous hero that
matters in the death ultimately. Explain the following statements with
reference to their context. 1) Did you tackle that trouble that came your
way With a resolute heart and cheerful? Ans: The poem
starts with rising a question to second person you (either
to someone or reader) that how you could face the problems in life. The speaker
in the poem may or may not to the poet, he asks whether you accepted it
with resolute heart and cheerful. The resolute
heart gives reader the idea that how determined and steady one was to encounter
the predicament. The use of word cheerful shows that a determination has come
along with confidence where smile on face makes one firm and concrete fight. The
speaker asks if you had not tackled the trouble, then did you hide your face from
the light of day, the phrase means to get revealed to public. So
he questions whether you refused to admit your failures with cowardice and fear
of confrontation. 2) It’s nothing against you to fall down
flat. But to lie there that’s disgrace. Ans: The expression
beaten to earth represents how badly one has failed in his efforts. The effect
of word beaten is felt when read and it appropriately
creates the feel of fall. Speaker justifies that what’s wrong in being
overthrown or fall down flat, but one should always fight back
with smiling face. Here smiling face denotes hope and positivity. He also says
that experiencing defeat is acceptable but not it’s permanence. Live with a ray
of hope even in your crisis. 3) It isn’t the fact that you’re dead that
counts. Ans: Speaker
believes life is like ball, harder you are thrown higher you bounce. In other
words harder the iron is hit better is its shape. In life when we are exposed
to greater problems, the success that derives from it will also be great. He
says be proud of your blackened eye, referring here to the shame
or dishonor earned from failures of life. Licked denotes to hard hit one
undergoes, which is least important than recovery. It matters that how and why
you fight back in life! The purposes in these lines are the reason for
motivation to keep battling against problems. 4) But only how did you die? Ans: At the end of
the poem speaker says that Death might either advance as slow poison or kill
suddenly with no prior knowledge. Whether you live your life slow or spry;
slow can mean calm or sluggish and spry referring energetic and active. In life
what matters is not that one is dead but how one died! The last line of the
poem has been taken as the title of the poem. The last line of the poem has deeper
meaning than its literal meaning. Now, dying is an act where it speaks about
the end of one’s life. So the last moment of being alive is precious to
everyone, thus the act of dying in particular situation has its importance. A
soldier holding the flag of his nation while losing his last breath signifies
heroic death to him. According to speaker he feels that the way one dies
determines what and how his life was. 1) Discuss: The poem is about how to come back
in life after failure, Ans: The poem
starts with rising a question to second person you (either
to someone or reader) that how you could face the problems in life. The speaker
in the poem may or may not to the poet, he asks whether you accepted it with resolute
heart and cheerful. The resolute heart gives reader the
idea that how determined and steady one was to encounter the predicament. The
use of word cheerful shows that a determination has come along with confidence
where smile on face makes one firm and concrete fight. The speaker asks if you
had not tackled the trouble, then did you hide your face from the light
of day, the phrase means to get revealed to public. So he questions
whether you refused to admit your failures with cowardice and fear of
confrontation. 2) What are the suggestions of the poet to
the face challenges of life? Ans: No matter
whether trouble is huge as a ton or trivial as an ounce, trouble is always a
trouble. So the presence of trouble affects everyone in life. Speaker says that
trouble is personal and it depends upon how one considers it and attends it.
And what matters here is not how it effects you but the way you respond to the
trouble. He tries to clarify that tackling the problem means more than the
intensity of the problem. The expression beaten to earth represents how badly
one has failed in his efforts. The effect of word beaten is
felt when read and it appropriately creates the feel of fall. Speaker justifies
that what’s wrong in being overthrown or fall down flat, but one
should always fight back with smiling face. Here smiling face denotes hope and
positivity. He also says that experiencing defeat is acceptable but not its
permanence. Live with a ray of hope even in your crisis. Speaker believes life
is like ball, harder you are thrown higher you bounce. In other words harder
the iron is hit better is its shape. In life when we are exposed to greater
problems, the success that derives from it will also be great. He says be proud
of your blackened eye, referring here to the shame or dishonor
earned from failures of life. Licked denotes to hard hit one undergoes, which
is least important than recovery. It matters that how and why you fight back in
life! The purposes in these lines are the reason for motivation to keep
battling against problems.
3) Critically appreciate the poem “How did
you Die?” Ans: ‘How did you
die?’ by Edmund Vance Cooke is a motivating poem giving the reader the wisdom
and the courage to deal with ordeals and troubles of life in the ideal manner. He
starts the poem with a question asking how we tackled the trouble that came.
Were we determined and cheerful when it came; or did we react cowardly and
fearfully and hid somewhere? He explains trouble becomes big or small according
to our attitude to it. It does not matter whether the trouble hurt you or not;
what matters is how you handled the trouble. He tells us we may get beaten
lying flat on earth; well such an experience is normal, we should immediately
get up smilingly. As falling is normal, but to continue to lie there is
disgrace. He further tells us a secret; and the secret is the harder we are
thrown down by troubles, the higher we bounce back. If while dealing with
troubles, we get a black eye (hurt or injured badly), we should be proud of it.
Finally it does not matter how badly we were hurt or injured; what matters is
how we fought the troubles. We may die fighting the troubles; but if we fought
the best; or if we did our part the best, the critics will praise us. Death
comes to all; it may come suddenly or it may come quietly; our dying does not
matter; what matters is how we died; whether we died like a coward or like a
courageous hero. 4) Justify the poem “How did you Die?” is a
motivational poem. Ans: This poem
reminds us of Ecclesiastes and how our life is a vapor. Our lives are brief.
The Hebrew word hebel, is often
rendered “vanity in the text,” but doesn’t mean pointless or futile as many
believe. Instead, the preacher of Ecclesiastes plays on the word’s basic sense
of vapor or breath. Everything in life is not meaningless, but fleeting,
evanescent, ungraspable like a vapor. Want an example? Wait for a cold day,
open your mouth wide, and breathe out the warm air and then try to grab the
cloud in your hands. That, proclaims the Preacher of Ecclesiastes, holds for
all of this life’s joys. Almost everything in our lives flickers and then
vanishes. Even the most seemingly solid fixtures of our lives can disappear in
less time than it takes to blink. And one day death will take from us, and take
us from, whatever joys we have left. Yet God is faithful, sovereign and
eternal, God is not a vapor! The message of Ecclesiastes isn’t that our
earthly joys are worthless, but that they are not ultimate. As a maturing
Christian we must learn to live in light of the certain tragedy of our death.
When you stop treating this life as your source of all satisfaction, you’ll
find it more fulfilling. Only someone who knows how to weep will really know
what it means to laugh. That’s the message of Ecclesiastes. We need to be a
person who realizes that living a good life means preparing to die a good
death. Want to live well, prepare to die well!
Answer the following questions in 300
words.
