Presentation on the poem On the Eve of His Execution

1. On The Eve of His Execution
(Poem)
By
Chidiok
Tichborne

2. Contents
 Context
 Introduction
 Metaphors and
Meaning
 Summary
 Critical Analysis

3. Context
 Tichborn and his father suffered the anti-Catholic laws promulgated by Queen
Elizabeth I
 Involved in the Babington Plot to assassinate the queen and replace her with
the Mary, Catholic Queen of Scots, who was next in line to the throne
 Got arrested due to foiling of a double-agent and sentenced to death on 14
August
 The poem written on 19 September 1586, the eve of his execution, was
enclosed with a letter to his wife Agnes
 ‘Hung and drawn’, disembowelled alive while still choking to death, at the
age of 28
continued…

4. • Previously known as 'Tichborne's Elegy'
• Focus on the despair of one who is about to be
executed
• Dramatization of dance of life with death
• Revelation of profound contradictions implicit in
human condition
• Masterly use of metaphors and paradoxes
Introduction

5. METHAPHORS AND MEANING
 Stanza 1, Line 1
‘My prime of youth is but a frost of care’
 Stanza 1, Line 3
‘My crop of corn is a field of tares’
 Stanza 1, Line 5
‘The day is past, and yet I saw no sun’
continued…
best of youth
coldness of sadness
unwanted situations
life
life has ended
nothing worthwhile
has resulted

6.  Stanza 2, Line 1
‘My tale was heard, and yet it was not told’
 Stanza 2, Line 2
‘My fruit is fall’n, and yet my leaves are green’
 Stanza 2, Line 4
‘I saw the world, and yet I was not seen’
the poet had a life
it was not lived to the
fullest
life is ending
he is still too young
to die
birth
nothing worthy
happened to life
continued…

7.  Stanza 2, Line 5
'My thread is cut, and yet it is not spun’
 Stanza 3, Line5
‘My glass is full, and now my glass is run’
life is ending
it is not lived out
plenty of
time
remaining
time has passed
away

8. SUMMARY
• Love for freedom
• One should endure his/her deeds
• Life and death are unpredictable
• Situations affect what one does
LIFE DEATH

9. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
• Self-absorbed
• Full sense of pessimism
• No reference to any achievement of life