Life and death are two sides of a coin that all humans must face. Life is a beginning, but its destination, shared by all human beings, is death, which is inevitable. The journey from life to death is sometimes long and can be exciting and arduous. However, no one has any idea when they will arrive at their destination, but we all know that it is inevitable. It gives us a reason to live. As night follows day, summer follows winter, adulthood follows childhood, just as death follows life. Stephen Vizinczey's poem “Elephant” is about the relationship between passionless life and death. Subtly, it reveals how this life slowly but surely leads humans to their ultimate reality, that is, death. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Initially, the poem suggests that the inauguration of the human journey is life that is very unexciting and unrelenting. The speaker uses reality as a symbol of life and describes, “it is difficult to see around it a massive, stately, plodding beast with limitless patience, walking passionless paths while unshakably maintaining a relentlessly implacable momentum.” The “Elephant” is the focus of the title. The speaker compares life to the characteristics of an “Elephant” and uses personification. It is difficult to see the Elephant around due to its bulky body and as well as life due to heavy stress and burdens. The “lordly” world in line 4 reflects that life is characteristic of God or gifted by God. In the first line, the speaker considers life to be very quiet, slow, and unpleasant using concrete dictions such as “strenuous,” “limitless,” passionless", "unshakeable", "inexorably". The words “inexorably” and “unshakeable” internally rhyme with each other, which conveys that these words carry much of the weight of the poem upon them. Symbolically, the poem suggests that it is very difficult to see beyond the present life as it moves with limitless patience without stopping and deviating from its path towards death. By separating the poem into stanzas and giving it a strophic structure with enjambement, the poet makes it clear that this poem is about a continuous journey in which each verse begins from a new topic. The absence of characters indicates that it is a lyric poem. In the second quatrain, the speaker explains that everyone is condemned to death, fortunately or unfortunately. The speaker says: «So let's not flagellate reality but respect where respect is due, we might as well bang our heads against the walls or set our feet on a stone to refute it». Since life is ongoing and unstoppable in its path, why do people criticize and refute it? That's the point; the poet is trying to do in this stanza. Human beings develop different feelings in their mind when they think about death and most of the time they develop fear in their mind. But everyone knows it will come to all of us, whether we deny it or accept it. The words “beat”, “stub” suggest a negativity that the speaker expresses as an idea of ​​criticism and disapproval of the truth of life, which is not necessary. The speaker uses the word “respect” in line 10 connotes acceptance of death or respect for it and explains that we should accept the reality of life. The poem turns in the third stanza, expressing the idea of ​​the speaker reaching his destination. The speaker says, “Alternatively, I hear a voice ringing, the pachyderm is but one of a myriad of species, each genus is unique: could it not be so with reality?” The first two verses explain life and the third verse divides life from death. The word “in.26.