Image of Grief

Choosing an image of a holy cross on the snow mountain, Henry Longfellow used a powerful image to convey his intense emotion of grief and sadness toward his wife’s death. With a holy cross, this conveys a sense of religious feel into the poem that indicates Longfellow was religious. By saying that he had bear the cross for 18 years and was changeless since her death clearly demonstrate his love for her that he felt probably guilt to be unable to rescue his love and forever grief over her death. An example of an intense image to express the feeling of grief is rain. When you feel sad, often times the rain starts to pour out like water fall from the sky, mixing with lighting and thunder. As you scream out loud “NOOOOOO!” holding someone you dear in your arm, unable to save her from the inevitable death, the thunder strikes the earth to express your anger and the rain to express your grief. Your tears mixed with the rain soak your clothes and wet your face. It seems like the god is weeping with you and sharing the same grief as you. Rain is a perfect example for expressing grief.