Paired Poems Explication

"My Number" and "I had heard it's a fight" present different attitudes about death. Collins personifies Death, who travels around the world to end people's lives. The narrator in the first poem wants to avoid Death. He hopes that Death is too busy with other people, so he is able to continue his life without being noticed. He acts cowardly because he would rather Death takes another person's life to save himself. He is constantly thinking about Death, whose name he repeats throughout the poem. He tries to hide from his fate because he fears getting a visit from Death. He imagine that Death is making arrangements for when people should die and always calculating evil plots, such as spreading cancer cells and breaking roller coasters. When he must face Death, he will use insincere politeness by asking whether Death had trouble finding him to convince it to spare his life. He seems helpless to the will of Death and spends so much time contemplating it that he forgets to live his life.

In the second poem, Denby also considers his experience with Death, but he has an opposing view. He believes that he should confront Death and fight for his life. He personifies Death as an opponent, who will be defeated. Rather than fearing his death, he looks forward to the thrill of being triumphant over Death and controlling his own life. His poem is more light-hearted because Death seems less intimidating. The narrator acts stronger than the first speaker because he is prepared to wrestle with Death when he arrives to take his life. He thinks about living instead of when his life will end. He he does not consider Death to be planning, but it will sneak up on people when they do not expect it. He uses two meanings of "hell." It is an exclamation for when he first encounters Death and when he realizes that he must change his lifestyle if he wants to live. Also, he uses hell to refer to the place where immoral people will go after they die, which is where Death will send him if he does not stop drinking and get exercise. He compares himself to a schoolkid who has learned his lesson.  His quick experience with Death actually benefits him because he will improve as well as elongate his life.