Of Death and Resurrection

William Strode sets up the poem as a chain of brief, flashing comparisons, each one measuring human life against something that seems to vanish almost as soon as it appears: the turning of an eye, a falling star, a clock hand, a breaking wave, a gust of wind, a flame, even rumor. In the first half, every image points toward haste, instability, and disappearance. The movement feels relentless, and the repeated phrases make mortality seem not just inevitable but almost mechanical, as if living itself were a process already leaning into loss.

The second half turns that logic inside out. The same kinds of images return, but now they suggest suspension, survival, and reversal: sleep, a star that seems to fall only to remain, the shadow on Ahaz's watch, the wave that is pulled back, the wind and flame restored, news confirmed after doubt. Human life, now figured as a pledge in the grave, is not merely ended but held in expectation of a greater return. The poem's central tension lies in that shift from decay to resurrection: Strode refuses to deny death's power, yet he insists that death is not the final meaning of the body or the soul.

Tone in Of Death and Resurrection

Strode's tone is tightly controlled, inventive, and deeply devotional, as if he is reasoning his way toward consolation through a sequence of images. The mood for the reader begins as urgent and sobering, with a strong sense of vanishing and loss, but it gradually opens into relief and expectancy. By the end, the poem feels less like a lament than a confident assertion that death's apparent finality can be answered by renewal.

Themes in Of Death and Resurrection

• Mortality and transience - The poem repeatedly compares life to things that vanish, break, or pass in an instant, emphasizing how fragile and brief human existence is.
• Resurrection hope - Against the first half's emphasis on loss, the second half imagines renewal, suggesting that death is only a pause before restoration.
• Instability of the visible world - Stars, waves, wind, flame, and news all shift or disappear, showing that the material world cannot be trusted as permanent.
• Christian triumph over death - The poem ultimately frames resurrection as the answer to mortality, placing human destiny within a religious promise rather than a purely natural cycle.
• Reversal and return - Many images are presented in paired opposites, making the poem a meditation on how apparent endings can become beginnings.
• Human dependence on divine power - The poem suggests that life cannot renew itself; only a power beyond human control can restore what has fallen.

Literary Devices in Of Death and Resurrection

• Simile - The poem depends on a rapid series of comparisons introduced by "like," which gives the meditation its force and variety while keeping the argument compact.
• Repetition - The repeated structures and phrases create a ritual, prayer-like rhythm that reinforces the poem's meditation on recurring loss and renewal.
• Parallelism - Strode sets the first half and second half in closely matched patterns, allowing the poem to move by contrast from decline to restoration.
• Antithesis - Death and resurrection are placed in direct opposition, sharpening the poem's theological argument and emotional turn.
• Metaphor - Human life is imagined as something borrowed or pledged in the grave, a figure that stresses both vulnerability and expectation.
• Allusion - The reference to Ahaz's watch invokes a biblical sign of time reversed, linking the poem's argument to scriptural miracle and divine intervention.
• Imagery - The poem uses quick, physical images of motion, light, wind, and sound to make abstract ideas about mortality feel immediate and visible.

Symbolism in Of Death and Resurrection

• The eye - It symbolizes the swift passing of time and the fragility of human perception, as well as the possibility of waking into renewed sight.
• The falling star - It suggests sudden disappearance, but in the second half it can also imply apparent loss that does not end in final extinction.
• The clock hand - It stands for measured time and human subjection to it, showing life as something that moves steadily toward an end.
• The wave - It represents motion that seems to break and vanish, yet can also be pulled back, echoing death and return.
• The wind - It symbolizes breath and life itself, both of which can seem spent and then restored.
• The flame - It suggests vitality, soul, or spirit, vulnerable to being smothered but capable of reignition.
• The grave - It functions as a temporary holding place rather than a final destination, embodying the poem's Christian hope of resurrection.

Historical Context of Of Death and Resurrection

William Strode belongs to the early modern English tradition of religious lyric and devotional poetry, a world shaped by Protestant Christianity, close biblical reading, and a fascination with wit, brevity, and paradox. Poems of this period often treat death not only as a personal fact but as a theological problem: what seems like ending may, in Christian understanding, be transformed by resurrection and divine judgment.

The poem's style also reflects the metaphysical taste for compressed argument and surprising comparisons. Rather than unfolding a long narrative, it builds meaning through rapid analogies and sharp reversals, a method common in seventeenth-century religious verse, where intellect and faith are often woven together.

Poems Similar to Of Death and Resurrection

• Death, be not proud - John Donne
• Easter Wings - George Herbert
• The World - Henry Vaughan
• The Pulley - George Herbert
• They Are All Gone into the World of Light! - Henry Vaughan