"Death is not darkness; it is just putting of candle because dawn is here.
The above lines suggest the optimism that is reflected in the existence of life itself. For each one of us is to one day shed our physical existence but that does not mark the end of our journeys. It is rather the end of one phase of our existence for the beginning of another. Such is the optimistic perception that is reflected in Jibanananda Das's "Before Dying".
In the first verse the poet begins by describing the walks in "winter dusk" through "lonely stubble fields". Winter dusk probably symbolizing the seclusion and the sense of nostalgia that each one of us at some or the other time experience. Where as the stubble fields pointing out at the existence of the full grown plant and the stubbles as remnants of harvesting. As a result implying our growth in life and then accepting death, for life was fully lived and experienced like the stubble in the field. He mentions the "soft river-women strewing flowers", a metaphor trying to explain the similarity that he observes in the women who seemed to him virtually like river-sprites. The poet uses Indian words like "dhundul trees" and "akanda" reflecting his sense of belonging to his country, his passion for his land and the beauty that he observes and appreciates in each of its existing phenomena. Later in the verse he also makes a reference to the "uncaring moon" which continues to "stand silent" thereby implying that life goes irrespective of anything and that is what makes it worth living more than anything else.
In the second verse the poet goes on to describe the minutest of details of the beauty that he has observed in life. How every moment brought a treat for his eyes, for he possessed the sight to cherish and appreciate the gifts of nature. How even the "long winter nights" were also loved by him. The poem subtly and continuously plays beauty, desire, life and colour against grey death(darkness).
