"The problem with survival was that you found yourself with the ghosts of everyone you left behind on your shoulders." - Paolo Bacigalupi Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Czeslaw Milosz and Osip Mandelstam are two poets who survived many tragedies throughout their lives. Both have lived extremely difficult lives due to situations in their homelands. Osip Mandelstam was a Russian poet who lived in Russia during its revolution. Czeslaw Milosz was a Polish poet who lived in times when fascism (World War II and Stalinism) was prominent in his home in Europe. In the two works “The Tongue of My Faithful Mother” by Czeslaw Milosz and “Leningrad” by Osip Mandelstam, survivor's guilt is expressed through the diction and tone of each poem. Survivor's guilt is a serious problem that affects the lives of many after various atrocities that have occurred in history and will occur in the future. For example, many veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This occurs after experiencing traumatic events, such as experiencing war first-hand, seeing lives taken, and lives themselves being taken. Furthermore, this sense of guilt can be found in refugees forced to leave their homeland. There are many reasons why people seek refuge, whether it is due to political issues or catastrophic events, it has become an unfortunately popular practice. It may seem that successful refugees have been saved from the tragedies of their homeland, but sometimes there is a powerful hidden consequence. Many refugees carry invisible burdens on their shoulders: their homes, families and neighbors destroyed. These authors are an excellent representation of the tragedies that follow countries in conflict that force their constituents into exile. Milosz demonstrates how survivor's guilt is a very destructive force. It expresses a sense of loss that can only be seen in many aspects of a destroyed culture. At the beginning of “My Faithful Mother Tongue,” the speaker says, “Every night, I would place little bowls of paint before you so that I could keep in my memory your birch, your cricket, your finch.” The speaker conveys his commitment to his dying language and his efforts to revive it in his memory. Furthermore, in the middle of the poem, the speaker states something very profound, a metaphor that resonates with the reader: “Fortune rolls out a red carpet before the sinner in a moral work.” This is a great example of how disaster survivors face the possibility of living the rest of their lives in shame and guilt as the idea of ​​having done something wrong haunts them. Milosz then ends the poem with the phrase: "For what is needed in misfortune is a little order and beauty", this elaborates on Milosz's idea that the unfortunate (in Milosv's case the victims of fascism and Stalinism ) deserve to be honored and glorified because they demonstrate the chaos and harsh reality of life for others. Milosz also says that "maybe I'm the one who should try to save you after all." This further promotes the idea of ​​sharing responsibility and remembering the unfortunate. Furthermore, Milosz feels obliged to redeem the loss of language and order experienced by his country. Throughout the poem one can sense the tone of pain and shame that his words carry with them and his emphasis on the responsibility of remembering the unfortunate members of his house. Through diction and tone Milosev preaches the importance of acknowledging the losses his country has suffered.