The speaker struggles with the fact that his beloved is no longer here. According to many critics, the speaker is Donne himself and "Santa Lucia" represents his beloved Anna more. As his wife died in the year 1617 and the poem was published in 1627. But some critics say that the poem can also be dedicated to his friend Lucy or his daughter Lucy who died in the same year. Saint Lucia's Day refers to December 13, the shortest day of the year. It is traditionally called the winter solstice, when the sun is thought to be dead and until it is reborn, the nights are longer than the days. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The setting of the poem is Saint Lucia's Day, the longest night of the year. It metaphorically shows the poet's attitude to the fact that his beloved has died. The longest night symbolizes the pain the speaker felt over the departure of his beloved. Saint Lucia is thought to be Anna more, her saint who brought peace to her mind. In the first line, the midnight of the year suggests the death of the year as midnight ends one day and begins another. The word "midnight" actually begins the theme of death in this poem. The day is December 13, a month linked to the death of animals and plants since it is winter then. This also connects the poem with death. Since December is cold, the poet's tone is also cold. Line 2 shows how the day is short as it only lasts seven hours. It also metaphorically shows how the time of their "love" was short. The word "scarce" means rare and concerns the day of Saint Lucia. It also metaphorically represents the rarity of his love. In this line, the word 'unmasks' represents how the night masked the day, meaning that death took away his beloved. Lines 3-4 give us the image of a dying or setting sun. which once again expresses his anguish and underlines the theme of death. These images also indicate the poet's state of mind, how he has become gloomy and melancholic from being normal and happy. Line 5 also indicates death as it shows that the speaker's entire world has sunk. The word "sunken" may be a metaphor for being very short. In line 6, the "general balm" used in medicine can be a metaphor to show that the speaker's lover's life was a good thing for the speaker. But the word "balm" can also be a play on words for "embalming the dead", which still indicates death. It can also indicate that the "hydroptic" land drank the speaker's lover, which means he killed her. To the speaker, the earth is extremely thirsty, which indicates its greed and that is why the earth drank its beloved causing her death. In line 7 “life” is personified as she is forced to “shrink at the foot of the bed.” feet'. This line is also a simile as it can be compared to how a man shrinks in bed at the moment of death. In line 8, the speaker says that life is "dead" and "buried" or buried. In line 9, he says it is the epitaph of those dead things. This shows his anguish as it is an "epitaph" created by a living person. According to Frost, in the first stanza, the speaker's life has no light, no moisture, and no life. Guiborry thinks that the images of the sun setting, the lifeblood of the world sinking, the diminishing of life suggest that the departure of his beloved has caused the death of the world. According to Sabrina Light, the internal rhyme between the word "laugh" associated with happiness and "epitaph" associated with death; shows the death of the speaker's happiness. In stanza two the writer engages the readers. The stanza begins with a sentence.