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Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
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- Henry Scott-Holland
Jun 16, 2015 · Death is nothing at all. 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. Call me by my old familiar name. Speak to me in the easy way you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
- Henry Scott-Holland
Nothing is past; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before only better, infinitely happier and forever we will all be one together with Christ. no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Based on a sermon given at St Paul's Cathedral following the death of King Edward VII.
# Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name.
- Stanza One
- Stanza Two
- Stanza Three
- Stanza Four
- Stanza Five
- Stanza Six
The poem begins with the speaker repeating the line that became the title of this piece, “Death is nothing at all.” This repetitionemphasizes the fact that this mantra is not something to be said and then forgotten, but a much larger theme that will last throughout the poem’s entirety. As a reader, it is important to refer back to this line as one ...
The second stanza continues the speaker’s claim that nothing has really changed between the two. He asks his listener to “Call [him] by [his] old familiar name.” He does not wish to be treated, or thought of, any differently because he is now dead. Additionally, he wants everyone, especially this person who means so much to him, to speak “in the ea...
The speaker takes the third stanza to remind his listeners of all the pleasant times they’ve had in the past. He wants to make sure that he/she remembers when “we always laughed” and what “little jokes” they had together. There is nothing depressing about this speaker’s outlook on death. He sees it as being a simple change from one place to another...
It becomes clear by the fifth stanza that the speaker is very sure in his beliefs. He begins to repeatthe same ideas over and over again, one on top of the other, in an effort to make sure that his listener has no doubt in his/her mind about how he wants to be remembered. He sees the time after he has died as being an “absolute unbroken continuity....
In the second to last stanza of the poem, the speaker takes a turn from the repetitive notions that he has been explaining to his listener. He tells her/him that he is “waiting.” He is somewhere quite close by, as close as “Just around the corner.” In a separate line, the speaker states that “All is well.” There is nothing that his listener or anyo...
In the final stanza, which is formatted differently from those which proceeded it. Although it appears different, the sentiments are the same. The speaker explains that nothing in the universe is either “past” or “lost.” Everything exists on the same plane, and on this plane is Christ. In one last plea to the speaker, and attempt to alleviate gener...
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
Mar 18, 2024 · Death Is Nothing At All by Henry Scott Holland is an elegy. This means that the poem is intended as an exploration of death. In this case, it has a more optimistic note to it as it focuses on the memory of those who have passed as well as the spiritual belief that they are not entirely gone.
It is from his discussion of the latter that perhaps his best-known writing, Death is nothing at all, is drawn: Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was.
