IV. DEATH BY WATER

IV. DEATH BY WATER

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

Dead by water analysis and opinion.

This poem you can analyze it with two points of view, one is the literal point of view where you find the sailor Phlebas, a Phoenician that suffer the death by water, that is to say he drowned and while he was falling and dying ,he could see his life through all its stages, since his oldest moment until his youth ,which is something very explicit and clear in the poem, But if we analyze it in a more deep way, we can see the poem as the representation of the baptism or something similar, where a way of life dies and a new one is born, the sin dies through the water, and through water born the spiritual life… The old “me” is dead and a new man is born, a man without sin and with a different strength or energy is showed at the end of this process of purification, the same is showed in the poem.

Alliteration:

-Phlebas the Phoenician…

-Fortnight dead, Forgot…

Prolepsic: (figure that shows anticipation to an event.)

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.

It is saying that he was already dead and after that, are mentioned the things that he already forgot.

Metaphor:

The whole poem can be seen as a metaphor if you see it with the second point of view mentioned previously.

Speaker : The speaker Is a man telling the story of Phlebas , the Phoenician.

Mood: Calmed, Thoughtful.

Where is the setting? : The sea.