A poem which evokes death, and thoughts on other stages of life is "A Girl" by Edward Morgan. Death is a theme with many different aspects, murder or accidental death, yet in the poem we come across an unusual predicament. The poem deals with the moral issue of euthanasia who gets to decide the fate of the young girl? There is a choice, you either go along with the doctors and consultants and look at the situation from their medical and ethical point of view, or you stick with the parents and switch their daughter's machine off as they want their daughter to die "with Dignity." Religion and the courts play a large part in this state of affairs and between all of this they have to come up with a conclusion.
Within the first few lines we are painted a very detailed picture of the young girls dilemma. "Thin as a bird fallen from its nest." This sentence is a simile that makes a large impact on you and is very memorable. The subject of the poem is clear right from the start. A young girl is vulnerable, unloved, neglected and is fighting for her life. The word "thin as a bird" makes you think of a girl who is emaciated and this makes you feel sympathy for her. Moreover we hear about how the "Muscular contractions have returned her to the foetal crouch." This gives you an impression of a young foetus in the womb, curled into a ball; someone who is yet to be born and who is already suffering. The choice of words really does give you an impression of a pregnancy. "Tubes pour such nourishment into her" could be representing the umbilical cord, the natural biological apparatus that keeps the foetus alive, compared to the man made life-support machines in the hospital which are keeping the subject of the poem alive. .
The question of Abortion is then raised in the poem.
