The last call by Andrew Motion: An analysis

The Last Call

Death called me,
I did not hear.
He spoke again:
Come near.

I went to look
for pity.
Poor death, I thought,
he loves me.

I guessed right,
he does.
And now I love him too,
just because.

“All human things are subject to decay, And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey:” -  Mac Flecknoe

The philosophical dimension of the poem is the inevitability of death, as Claudius says in ‘Hamlet’ that every living thing must taste death. The primary concern of the poet is the truth value rather than the rhetorical aspect. The ‘bare bound’ style of the poem beautifully manifests the intimate emotion that is accepting the last call, Death. As we know right from the birth onwards all the living beings are gradually moving into death.

The poem is noted for its Thanatotic impulse. Sigmund Freud puts the two significant terms such as ‘Eros’ and ‘Thanatos’ in his much celebrated work “Beyond the Pleasure Principle”. Eros stands for the life instincts, deals with survival, pleasure and reproduction. While Thanatos stands for the death instinct, these instincts are essential for sustaining life. As Freud says “the goal of life is a good death”. Death follows everyone in a quite insidious manner. As the speaker says death loves me that much, as it follows every time, even though I do not love him back. Now it is the time to accompany with him, as my destiny demands. He willingly accepts the universal necessity or the cosmic law by accepting the last call.