Death From Different Views Of Poetry

Some of the poems Emily Dickinson wrote, usually offered many different views of death that involve physical and emotional responses of the soul and body’s journey through nothingness, madness and even eternity. The greatness in her poems comes from the use of literary devices to give meaning to death and the different interpretations of the journey through death. Although Dickinson presents contradicting thoughts sometimes, it is clear that she believes that there are many types of deaths in a human being’s life. This paper compares and contrasts the theme of death in Dickinson’s three poems titled “I heard a fly buzz”, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “After great pain a Formal Feeling Comes”.

Raised fists and a fading smile usually follow the confrontation of death as we experience the first stages of denial in the grieving process. We not only grieve at the loss of a loved one, but at the loss of our own life as well. When death rears its ugly head, it demands this response. Whether through art or science, humor or ritual, mankind marks and confronts this passage with both defiance and trepidation that eventually turns into acceptance and submission.

In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.

Mark Twain once said “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. ” Death is an inevitable process of human life. All men must die sooner or later.

Two literary pieces, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by, Dylan Thomas and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by, Emily Dickinson are both poems that discuss the topic of death. While there are some similarities and comparisons between the two poems, when it comes to the themes, both poets writing styles are quite different from one another which makes each poem unique. Thomas and Dickinson both use identical figurative language devices and other literature symbolisms as they explain their main themes which contrasts the differences to the concept of death. These distinct variations between poems are apparent in both the form, and how the choice of words is used in the poems. Both of the authors have presented two very different ideas on death. The poems are well distinguished literature devices, they share minor similarities and differences between each other and how they present the meaning of death to a toll.

The poems “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas and “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A. E. Housman both discuss how each author views death. But, both poems have drastically different opinions upon the matter. Thomas in “Do Not Go Gentle” is full despair and hatred towards death, and is tries to convince his father not to accept death. Whereas, Housman in “To an Athlete” expresses that a young death is beautiful and glorious. That a young death shouldn’t be just seen as sad, but more as honorable.

Regardless of race, caste, religion, or age, every human has wondered about the one fact of life that unifies us all: What is death? Both poems, “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” by Margaret Atwood and “Because I could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson share a common subject of death. Using figurative language, both poems illustrate distinct takes on a similar topic.

Death is the concern in of both Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into That Goodnight,” and Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. Moreover, while these two poets use similar themes in their works, the execution and tone of their respective pieces could not be more antithetical. More to the point, Thomas’ poem paints death and oblivion as something deserving of fear and dread, and even though dying is an immutable fact in our world, man will always feel the need to have, “Rage, Rage against the dying of the light”. However, Dickinson does not let the fear of death consume her, so much so, that in her poem she embraces death as nothing less than a gentleman, who in her own words “kindly stopped for me”. At the end of it all, Dylan Thomas’ poem is a loud boisterous proclamation about the desperation of man to hold on to life and to leave something behind but ultimately realizing they cannot, while Dickinson’s is a quiet reflection about the cyclical nature of life and death and the peace the end brings.

We live in a world where we are all mortal. This being said we must all die at some point. We live our lives to the best of our abilities because it can come to an end at any time. Some people live in fear of death while others live in the moment. In some situations lives can end early then the normal, these deaths are the most devastating.

In the poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickenson, death takes form as a human that acts as a gentle guide to the speaker of the poem. However the relationship changes in the fourth stanza, a more conventional vision of death takes place and things become cold and corrupt. Dickenson successfully creates this relationship between the speaker and death by using personification, sensory details, and paradox. The meter of the poem creates a kind of light hearted rhyme to it which creates a tone that isn’t as dark as the poems subject matter. Personification is the most important of the rhetorical devices used in the poem, mainly because without it the poem would lose one of its main characters.

Death is normally an uncomfortable topic for most. However, realization that death can occur at any time is critical. Many people have this unrealistic notion that our loved ones will be with us for a long time. Most people see death as something that happens in old age. They believe they have time to prepare their hearts for the death of a loved one. However, sometimes this does not always happen. Sometimes people are taken from us too soon.

“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson embellishes a battle between among the tranquility of life and the unseen time before death. The author creates the poem to seep deep into our thoughts through imagery, diction and personification. Life tracks along a path and we shouldn’t fear death, but we should also know that it will transpire. She portrays death as a little gloomy but through her imagery and other literary devices she is able to death appeal to the reader. Dickinson describes the cycle of life with death that will end that cycle of life.

It is interesting to know that her tone in regards to death contradicts in both of her poetries. The speaker's tone in the poem I heard a fly buz,.creates painful and scary feelings. Since the poem speaks of death as once death means death forever is painful to hear. Knowing about death as end of life is painful for every reader as life is a precious gift which all one of us loves therefore portraying death as end of life forever can be painful. In addition to it the tone also creates a scary mood in a way that this poem is written as if the writer has been through death, experienced all what she talks about death in her poem like when death approach me I heard a fly buzz and then everything around was calm along with the stillness in the air. To me it sounds like an experienced death ghost telling about the end of life would be like, with decay of our body we would vanish away too. The tone of this poem makes the readers fear death and feel pained about it. While on the other hand I could not stop for death is completely opposite with the tone compared to I heard a fly buzz. The tone is affable and appealing. Dickenson’s describes in her poetry children playing which gives affable mood to her poetry compare to the other one. Along with this as an example it also appeals the readers towards comprehending the poem for the reason that it talks about interesting

Although both poems are written using iambs, a contrasting difference is evident between them; "Because I Could Not Stop For Death?is written using an alternating trimetric and tetrametric system while "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night?is written in a consistent pentameter form (five feet in each meter). Thomas structures his poem using a simple and tight formal structure to convey a sense of commanding to his father in overcoming death. The differences and similarities in the style and meter structure utilized by each poet, contributes to the presentation of their own unique ideas regarding death. Both of the poems explore the concept of death. However, through careful examination, although they are similar in a sense, one can distinguish the variation of the same theme.

Emily Dickinson once said, “Dying is a wild night and a new road.” Some people welcome death with open arms while others cower in fear when confronted in the arms of death. Through the use of ambiguity, metaphors, personification and paradoxes Emily Dickinson still gives readers a sense of vagueness on how she feels about dying. Emily Dickinson inventively expresses the nature of death in the poems, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)”, “I Heard a fly Buzz—When I Died—(465)“ and “Because I could not stop for Death—(712)”.