Devastating Effects of the Plague: Black Death, Influenza, and COVID19

The plague
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The Plague Over the years, the world has experienced numerous pandemics that have claimed millions of lives while leaving millions with life-sustaining disabilities. For example, the Black Death, a global epidemic, struck Europe and Asia in the mid-13th century and claimed more than 20 million people. Similarly, the influenza pandemic was a severe global disease that infected over 500 million people and killed more than 50 million people (History.com, 2020). In the story “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe, Edgar Allan, explains a plague that had devastating impacts on the country. The author uses “Red Death” as a metaphor to describe the disease process, emphasizing the redness of blood and scarlet stains. At the beginning of the story, the author uses devastated, fatal, sharp pains, pestilence to describe the impact of the “red death” that is so deadly and kills in minutes after infection. On the other hand, in the poem “Pestilence,” Freddie describes a shocking yellow fever plague that killed over 5000 people in Philadelphia –and around 20000 people fled the city for safety.

Christina Rossetti is well known for her mystical religious lyrics, ballads, poetry such as Goblin and other poems, and Prince’s Progress and poems full of symbolism and intense feelings. She was born in December 1830 in London and later succumbed to cancer in 1894 (Poetry Foundation, 2020). In the poem “The Plague,” Rossetti expounds on the frightening suddenness of the plague and how f...