An Analysis of On the Other Hand :: On the Other Hand Essays

An Analysis of On the Other Hand   On the Other Hand, what is on the other(a) strive? Rachel Hadas tells about the living, the dead and shows the reader the other side of usual thoughts about the dead and living. She lists the faults of the living and the virtues of the dead, in order to explain her first statement, it is no interrogate why we love the dead. Yet, then turns everything around again in the last statement of this free verse poem. Rachel Hadas poem, On the Other Hand distinctly depicts the many differences of the brittle, easily wounded living and the patient, peaceful dead. In the first stanza of the poem, the dead are said to be admired in a dash because of all the flaws that the living inhibit. The living are said to be ungrateful, obsessive and needy, greedy, and vain.  This approach of describing the living lets the reader see a side of disembodied spirit that he may not have noticed before. The living usually have certain connotations with the good and the joys of life however, On the Other Hand shows the other side, the negatives of the living.  The living are easily hurt and non-virtues. The way the word, opacity, is used makes the reader think of the living to be cold-hearted, incapable of penetration. Hadas is obviously stating that the dead are go against in comparison to the living because of the numerous imperfections of the living.   In the foster stanza, Rachel Hadas, goes on to emphasize her point of the dead deserving more praise than the living by the listing of the virtues that the dead posses. While the living are needy and greedy, the dead are better at resisting wishes. Hadas also describes the dead to be blithely, or carefree, while the living do not have that luxury. A great amount of comparisons between the living and the dead is being accented in the second stanza of this thought-provoking poem. Such as the dead to be deliberate, and the living being said to be impulsive. The first two stanz as of Hadass poem very give the title its meaning. The reader is forced to see the other side of the usual thoughts of the living and dead. Hadas is in fact showing the reader the other break, or other side of the situation.  She continues this approach in the first part of the third stanza telling of the ability that the dead have to glide across the hours with sequence being no boundary to them.