Life and Death in Daud Kamal’s ‘An Ode to Death’: Stylistic and Pessimistic Analyses

Abstract

The ode under study has been analyzed from two dimensions; firstly, a stylistic analysis on technical, phonological, graphological, grammatical, lexical and semantic levels has been done and secondly the Pessimistic approach from Existentialism theory has been applied for deeper analysis of the poem (ode) which will also help in diagnosing the structure and style of Daud Kamal’s poetry. Daud Kamal was a leading poet among the English poets in Pakistan. His art is recognized as the unique work of art that remained ignored throughout his life period. His poetic style has individuality and versatility. He is well-known for his concepts of spirituality and mysticism. His poetic work is renowned and fascinated by the world’s most famous poets like W.B. Yeats and Ezra Pound. An ode to death is about the psychological state of the poet, his vision about the universality of death, mortality of life and unending life henceforward death. Kamal’s poetic style is weighed down to the philosophy of existentialism and the pessimistic approach. These analyses are an addition to the comprehension of the poem from the given thematic explanation. Moreover, the analyses of “An Ode to Death “refer to the outstanding use of the linguistic and rhetorical devices. The poem successfully creates psychological effects and captures the attention of the reader about the philosophy behind the universal phenomenon of ‘life & death’ throughout the poem. This study may contribute effectively to the scholars and researchers particularly concerned to the field of linguistics, literature and stylistics.