The poem continues with, “Let my name be ever the household word that it always was/Let it be spoken without effort” (13-14), which openly speaks to many of our wishes to be remembered but not mourned. But even in death, our loved ones remain close by “in the next room” as they find a new place in the afterlife or perhaps another state of non-being. Love remains after death, although it can change and warp in different ways as it waxes and wanes throughout the years. However close you are to a beloved person, they are still a separate entity from you. As he writes, “I have only slipped away into the next room/I am I and you are you/Whatever we were to each other/That we are still” (2-5), he diminishes the space between someone who has died and those that are mourning. Paul’s Cathedral, Scott-Holland has imbued this work with glimpses of heaven and the afterlife as a form of comfort for keeping the deceased closer to the hearts of the living. Like all the great milestones in life, from getting married to having children, death is a change that is facilitated through exchanging one lifestyle for another.Īs a Canon (or priest) at St. But Henry Scott-Holland’s “Death is Nothing at All” challenges this notion by voicing all of the thoughts and feelings that won’t change after a death has occurred. It’s a give and take that leaves us with something new after we let go of a dear part of our past. Like all the great milestones in life, from getting married to having children, death is a change that is facilitated through exchanging one lifestyle for another.
![death by degrees canon or not death by degrees canon or not](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYzYxN2YxYzktYmJlYi00MDZmLTg5MzEtZjU0MDgxNTA5OTZkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzY0MTE3NzU@._V1_.jpg)
![death by degrees canon or not death by degrees canon or not](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2E645WN/marathon-runner-fred-von-canon-l-of-sanford-north-carolina-celebrates-after-a-two-mile-run-as-high-temperatures-reach-128-degrees-fahrenheit-at-badwater-basin-282-feet-855m-below-sea-level-in-death-valley-national-park-in-california-june-29-2013-canon-said-he-could-resist-the-challenge-and-ran-out-into-the-salt-flats-for-a-mile-before-returning-reuterssteve-marcus-united-states-tags-society-travel-environment-2E645WN.jpg)
If life is just a game that we play, then death is one of the greatest game-changers there is.