Death

Death is an obvious theme in Behn's poem "Ten Years after Your Deliberate Drowning." The title of this poem is the first mention of death, and from there, the reader is constantly reminded that the speaker of this poem has lost a loved one. The speaker is trying to come to grips with death, trying not only to console herself about her loss but to understand what death is. The passage of time may have changed her sense of loneliness and longing, but she still does not fully comprehend what death is. She has witnessed it, which has forced her to face her own mortality. She too will one day die, and she wants to know what awaits her on the other side. "Tell me what x is," the speaker asks. She also wants to know if she is responsible for her friend's death. Was there something that...