Since I have started writing this blog, I've spent a great deal of time examining lyrics, several of which have been the terrific, insightful words of Stephen Sondheim. As I have been absorbing and cross-referencing, I have been noticing a recurring theme of death throughout most of his work. Death as part of emotional survival, death as part of losing one's self, impending death as part of an urgent warning for action, and actual physical death as life draws to a close. This is not to assert that Sondheim is maudlin, morose, or fixated, but it is arresting got explore how he uses themes of death to underscore the trials of life.