"An Examination of her body after death"  by Glen Colquhoun.

   In the poem “An examination of her body after death” by Glen Colquhoun, the main idea is that the poet is in grief of his friend’s death. He is also in serious denial that the body is not hers. He is upset and confused. Colquhoun uses negatives to show his denial. He uses metaphors to give contrasting images of his memories of her when she was alive to what she looks like now that her body is dead.

   One of the important ideas in this poem is the poet’s denial and confusion about his friend’s death and that it is not her dead body. The poet uses negatives in each verse to show that he is in denial. Especially at the start of each verse when he writes “you are not her…” For example “you are not her mouth”. He repeats “you are not her…” on the first line of each verse in the poem to create an idea of his denial that it is the dead body of his friend lying in front of him. This repetition of the use of negatives helps the reader understand the main idea by setting a negative mood. The author's positive view of her when she was alive change to negatives.

Another important idea in this poem is how is how the poet remembers his friend from when she was alive and his grief of her death. Colquhoun uses contrasting images of his memories of her when she was alive and how he sees her dead body now to show this. One of the sets of metaphors the poet uses to show contrasting images of memories of her and of what she is like now is “The sound of birds has gone away. So bold! These two fat worms now hungry for the dirt”. “The sound of birds” is talking about her voice when she was alive and “These two fat worms” is talking about her ugly dead lips. Also “worms now hungry for the dirt” refers to the idea of the dead body being buried in the dirt with worms. These metaphors strongly show the contrast of his idea of her body when she was alive and now her dead body.

   In “Examination”, Colquhoun uses negatives and metaphors to show the two main ideas in the poem. The author is remembering his friend and grieving her death and his denial that she is dead and it is her body lying in front of him. This is poem of a serious idea with a tone of grief and denial.

                                                                                                         By Josh Lopdell