F775, "Suspense – is Hostiler than Death –"
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Suspense – is Hostiler than Death –
Death – tho’soever Broad,
Is just Death, and cannot increase –
Suspense – does not conclude –
But perishes – to live anew –
But just anew to die –
Annihilation – plated fresh
With Immortality –
Death – tho’soever Broad,
Is just Death, and cannot increase –
Suspense – does not conclude –
But perishes – to live anew –
But just anew to die –
Annihilation – plated fresh
With Immortality –
In
F775, “Suspense – is Hostiler than Death –” “Suspense” and “Death” are
personified, becoming physical presences in the poem (F775 1). Ironically, both
entities represent some sort of absence or lack: “Death” is the absence of
life, and “Suspense” is a temporary absence (F775 1). “Suspense” (F775 1), like
the uncanny, is frightening because it “entails a sense of uncertainty and
suspense, how ever momentary and unstable” (Royle vii). It is knowledge and
anxiety—or excitement—about what is to come, but is not yet. The OED Online defines “suspense” as “[t]emporary
cessation, intermission” and “[a] state of mental uncertainty, with expectation
of or desire for decision, and usually some apprehension or anxiety”
(“suspense, n.”). It is this “apprehension or anxiety” (“suspense, n.”) that
makes the speaker believe that this temporary lack “is Hostiler than Death”
(F775 1). The speaker explains the difference between the two: “Death –
tho’soever Broad,/Is just Death, and cannot increase -/Suspense – does not
conclude –” (F775 2-4). As anyone who has ever seen a horror movie knows,
building suspense can be more terrifying than its conclusion (the actual appearance
of the horror, whatever that may be). For the speaker, the end horror seems to
be “Death” (F755 1), and the speaker describes “Death” as “Broad” (F775 2), referring,
perhaps, to its permanence. However, the speaker finds comfort in the fact that
“Death…cannot increase” (F775 3) as “Suspense” can (F775 4).
The dashes in F775 mimic this idea of suspense by creating a liminal space, a waiting period, between words and lines (F775 1). This effect is most prominent at the end of the first stanza: “Suspense – does not conclude –” (F775 4). Here, immediately after the word “Suspense” we are forced to pause and experience our own brief moment of suspense (F775 4). Similarly, the dash at the end of the line mimics the phrase “does not conclude” (F775 4). The dash continues the line after there are no more words, holding on and making us wait for the next stanza, which continues to describe the nature of suspense: It “perishes – to live anew -/But just anew to die” (F775 5-6). “Suspense” has the ability to build up and die down, which creates instability in a way that “Death” simply cannot (F775 1). “Death” “just is,” which means that it is by its nature an unchanging, stable condition (F775 3): “Annihilation – plated fresh/With Immortality” (F775 7-8). “Annihilation” (F775 7) refers to a complete erasure of something or someone (nihil in Latin means nothing). Therefore, we return to this idea of absence. Yet “Death” offers an absolute absence forever while “Suspense” people in a temporary state of absence. “Suspense” is inherently a liminal space/time, the embodiment of the uncanny (F775 1): “[The uncanny] begins at the threshold, with a complexity and uncertainty of crossing a threshold, with an experience of liminality (the word comes from Latin ‘limen’, threshold)” (Royle 136). Often suspense implies this “uncertainty” to which Royle refers because we may have a vague idea of what is coming, but we do not know.
The dashes in F775 mimic this idea of suspense by creating a liminal space, a waiting period, between words and lines (F775 1). This effect is most prominent at the end of the first stanza: “Suspense – does not conclude –” (F775 4). Here, immediately after the word “Suspense” we are forced to pause and experience our own brief moment of suspense (F775 4). Similarly, the dash at the end of the line mimics the phrase “does not conclude” (F775 4). The dash continues the line after there are no more words, holding on and making us wait for the next stanza, which continues to describe the nature of suspense: It “perishes – to live anew -/But just anew to die” (F775 5-6). “Suspense” has the ability to build up and die down, which creates instability in a way that “Death” simply cannot (F775 1). “Death” “just is,” which means that it is by its nature an unchanging, stable condition (F775 3): “Annihilation – plated fresh/With Immortality” (F775 7-8). “Annihilation” (F775 7) refers to a complete erasure of something or someone (nihil in Latin means nothing). Therefore, we return to this idea of absence. Yet “Death” offers an absolute absence forever while “Suspense” people in a temporary state of absence. “Suspense” is inherently a liminal space/time, the embodiment of the uncanny (F775 1): “[The uncanny] begins at the threshold, with a complexity and uncertainty of crossing a threshold, with an experience of liminality (the word comes from Latin ‘limen’, threshold)” (Royle 136). Often suspense implies this “uncertainty” to which Royle refers because we may have a vague idea of what is coming, but we do not know.