A Dog's Death by John Updike - Poem Analysis Essay Example

Poets use personification as a tool that helps the readers connect to an entity. They do this by giving non-human objects human qualities. This tactics is essential in helping the readers understand, sympathies or reacts in an emotional way in non-human characters in a poem. In the poem "Dogs Death" John takes the reader through the emotions of losing a loved one. The pet has become a part of the family and readers are able to feel the emotions of losing it through the description of the events. "To bite my hand and died. I stroked her warm fur. " Though surrounded by love that would have upheld her, "nevertheless she sank and, stiffening, disappeared." (Lines 13-16). The author has also been able to use rhymes as a way of showing the intensity of the situation. I believe the use of personification in the poetry has worked. People are able to connect with the dog and feel its suffering and the lose the family member have incurred.

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The poem starts by describing how the dog was hit and the way it had been trained to use the potty. According to the author, the dog had started being 'good' and had become part of the family. However, after the tragic accident, the owners did not realize the severity of the situation and continued to play with the dog. The dog is unable to talk or express herself continued playing while suffering inside. However, when the pain was too much to bear, she crawled under the bed of one of the kids. The family members found her the next morning and took her to the hospital. The stanza ends by explaining how the dog had crawled onto the newspaper to relieve herself. The end of the beginning of the poem is used as a metaphor to show the cycle of life.

The words that are emphasized in stanza three are twisted, limb and lap. The poet uses these words to emphasize the condition and emotion that was present in the house and in the car. It also acts as a way of giving the reader an imagery into what is happening as they drive to the veterinary (Updike). The irony is that as the children were being fed noisily, their dog was suffering and dying and no one was aware of the situation.

The image that I find most vivid is the one where the dog is crawling under the bed due to pain. The other imagery is the one where the dog craws towards the newspaper to relieve itself despite the pain. These two images show the suffering the dog was going through (Updike). The other imagery showed how the dog was trying to be obedient and relieve itself in the newspaper despite the pain that t was going through. The dog had been well trained and had adapted to the social norms. It did not want to disappoint the owners by soiling the floor. The image showed how the dog is loyal and their obedience to their masters.

The speaker has a friendly and excited tone at the beginning of the poem. However, as the dog lies on the owners lap dying the mood and the tone of the poet changes to a sad tone. The change in tone shows how people react to different situations and how the dog's deaths affected the family.

Works Cited

Updike, J. "Dog's Death by John Updike." 1953, hellopoetry.com/poem/10222/dogs-death/.