Lament For The Makaris
“Lament for the Makaris” is a poem in twenty-five stanzas, each of four lines with a rhyme scheme of aabb and a recurring refrain. Although written in a ballad form, William Dunbar’s poem is actually a meditation on serious moral and religious issues, including what for his time would have been the most important of all, the afterlife. The poem is about mutability and transition, including the transition from life to death, and what the human response to those changes should be. Death is a central concern because, as Dunbar notes in his repeated refrain, “Timor mortis conturbat me”: “The fear of death confounds me.”
In order to emphasize the shifting, uncertain nature of the world, Dunbar points out that the powerful and educated are subject …show more content…
For that reason, he concludes, people must do their best to live proper lives.
Forms and Devices
Dunbar is an extremely skilled and competent poet, and “Lament for the Makaris” is a carefully constructed work. There are twenty-five stanzas, each of four lines of rhyming couplets with a running refrain, “Timor mortis conturbat me.” This pattern, which developed in earlier French court poetry and was transported to England and Scotland, is known technically as “kyrielle” verse.
The refrain is from the religious ceremony known as the Offices for the Dead, and its repetition at the end of each stanza drives home one of the poem’s central points: In the midst of life one is surrounded by death and should live accordingly. For a moralizing, religious poet such as Dunbar, this point entailed opposing a carpe diem (seize the day) philosophy; instead of living for the moment, people should constantly and consistently behave well in order to deserve a life after
In order to emphasize the shifting, uncertain nature of the world, Dunbar points out that the powerful and educated are subject …show more content…
For that reason, he concludes, people must do their best to live proper lives.
Forms and Devices
Dunbar is an extremely skilled and competent poet, and “Lament for the Makaris” is a carefully constructed work. There are twenty-five stanzas, each of four lines of rhyming couplets with a running refrain, “Timor mortis conturbat me.” This pattern, which developed in earlier French court poetry and was transported to England and Scotland, is known technically as “kyrielle” verse.
The refrain is from the religious ceremony known as the Offices for the Dead, and its repetition at the end of each stanza drives home one of the poem’s central points: In the midst of life one is surrounded by death and should live accordingly. For a moralizing, religious poet such as Dunbar, this point entailed opposing a carpe diem (seize the day) philosophy; instead of living for the moment, people should constantly and consistently behave well in order to deserve a life after