Death in Auden’s Funeral Blues, Forche’s Memory of Elena, and Dickinson’s Last Night that She lived

Death is a controversial and sensitive subject. When discussing death, several questions come to mind about what happens in our afterlife, such as: where do you go and what do you see? Emily Dickinson is a poet who explores her curiosity of death and the afterlife through her creative writing ability. She displays different views on death by writing two contrasting poems: one of a softer side and another of a more ridged and scary side. When looking at dissimilar observations of death it can be seen how private and special it is; it is also understood that death is inevitable so coping with it can be taken in different ways. Emily Dickinson’s poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” show both

Emily Dickinson is one of the most important American poets of the 1800s. Dickinson, who was known to be quite the recluse, lived and died in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, spending the majority of her days alone in her room writing poetry. What few friends she did have would testify that Dickinson was a rather introverted and melancholy person, which shows in a number of her poems where regular themes include death and mortality. One such poem that exemplifies her “dark side” is, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. In this piece, Dickinson tells the story of a soul’s transition into the afterlife showing that time and death have outright power over our lives and can make what was once significant become meaningless.

In W.H. Auden’s “Funeral Blues” (pg. 762), the poem takes place a short time after the speaker’s beloved has died and how the speaker feels that his life has been forever changed and that he will never recover. In Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” (pg. 767), the poem takes place a short time after the speaker’s beloved has passed away and how she feels that she can master the feeling of losing someone the she loves. However, she seems to be in denial over her true feelings. Between the two poem’s, Auden’s “Funeral Blues” seems to do a better job than  Bishop’s “One Art”, in using rhyme, alliteration, and structure to show the reader the feelings and emotional state of the speaker after their beloved has died.

Both the “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson contain age-old themes. These themes focus on inevitable feelings and events of life; love and death. Although both “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” contain the two themes, they differ greatly in how they are presented and what they represent. In “Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” a husband traveling away from his wife is consoling her.

In Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop for Death,” there is much impression in the tone, in symbols, and in the use of imagery that exudes creativity. One might undoubtedly agree to an eerie, haunting, if not frightening, tone in Dickinson’s poem. Dickinson uses controlling adjectives—“slowly” and “passed”—to create a tone that seems rather placid. For example, “We slowly drove—He knew no haste / …We passed the School … / We passed the Setting Sun—,” sets a slow, quiet, calm, and dreamy atmosphere (5, 9, 11,

The subject of death, including her own was a very prevalent theme in Emily Dickinson’s poems and letters. Some may find her preoccupation with death morbid, but this was not unusual for her time period. The mindset during Ms. Dickinson’s time was that of being prepared to die, in the 19th century people died of illness and accidents at an alarming rate, not to mention the Civil War had a high number of casualties, she also lived 15 years of her youth next to a cemetery. Dickinson’s view on death was never one of something to be feared she almost romanized death, in her poem “Because I Could not Stop for Death”, she actually personifies death while narrating from beyond the grave. In the first stanza she states “I could not stop for

Emily Dickinson stresses the theme of death in her poem, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” It seems as if she likes to explore and question the experience of mortality. Within her poem, she creates conceits that compare death to a lover and tries to explain the process of death. Dickinson tentatively approaches the theme of mortality and questions what the actual experience of death is like rather than avoiding it. Poems that usually have a theme of death revolve around the fear of dying and the worry that there is not enough time within a lifetime, however, Dickinson uses personified metaphors to describe the process of dying and shows curiosity throughout her poem rather than fear of running out of time.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830-1886), American poet was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. In her childhood, Dickinson lived in a wealthy family and her family was as the center of the community. So, she gained a lot of chances to permeate interesting ideas from a several masterminds such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. She was an introvert. Her works were concerned with the mind of a human being and most of them related to death. Thus, it cannot deny that Emily Dickinson’s poetry works as a mirror to reflect the concept of death and immortality. Most of her works are short and do not follow the rule of structure. The idea of death of Emily greatly differs from others. Therefore, this paper mainly focuses on the poem Because I could not stop for Death

In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death “ (448), the speaker of the poem is a woman who relates about a situation after her death. The speaker personifies death as a polite and considerate gentleman who takes her in a carriage for a romantic journey; however, at the end of this poem, she finishes her expedition realizing that she has died many years ago.

Sylvia Plath, Judith Right and Emily Dickinson all express through their poetry the diverse feelings and beliefs they have in regards to life and death. Throughout Plath’s poems it is evident that she resents life and obsesses over the purity and perfection that she associates with death. Contrastingly, Wright demonstrates through her poems how she accepts the cycle of life, and embraces the gifts and challenges that it holds. Then, unlike Plath and Wright, Dickinson regards death and the afterlife with uncertainty and she portrays through her poetry the curiosity she has for life after death and the secrets it holds. These poets all use the similar technique of imagery to express the intense emotions they associate with both life and death. Furthermore, throughout the poems by Dickinson, Plath and Wright it is evident that each employ language techniques to portray their diverse beliefs and emotions regarding life and death. Finally, all three poets employ structure to illustrate the depth to which they regard life and death and the power each holds.

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)”.

The poem by Emily Dickinson entitled the “The Last Night That She Lived” is about the death of a family member. The death was rather expected as it seems. The reason we know this is because the whole family was already gathered in order to be there when she passed. Dickinson was labeled as a dark and morbid writer in her time. In the poem “The Last Night That She Lived,” we get to experience the sadness, grief, and even spirituality of Dickinson’s feelings when dealing with her experiences of death.

In the poem Funeral Blues, W.H. Audens choice of diction allows the reader a greater understanding of the intensity and depth of feeling experienced upon the loss of a loved one. Likewise, the symbolism used by the poet

The astonishing level of agony presented in a person when losing a loved one is described in the poem, “Stop All of the Clocks, Cut off the Telephone” by W.H. Auden. In this poem, the poet describes the pain of ending an intense sensation of love when one of the partners passes away. The inability to cope once one’s love has ended provokes the feeling that life has ended due to the thought of not being able to live alone. This is found in the poem when Auden states, “For nothing now can ever come to any good” (Auden, 16). The author’s use of figures of speech, imagery, and diction allow her audience to understand the speaker’s true emotions over its’ overwhelming grieving period.

Death is the subject of this poem, and becomes clear when Auden says, “Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come, ”. This poem’s topic has to do with someone close to the narrator dyeing possibly a lover. Auden uses a great deal of imagery in this poem; such as, “Tie crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, ” where he is talking about making the doves suitable for a funeral. The tone of this poem, the attitude the writer speaks in, is very depressing and gloomy. “For nothing now can ever come to any good, ”. He is obviously upset about the one that he has lost and is in mourning. The diction of this poem is Modern English with many allusions. “He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; ” this quote shows how close the narrator was to his lover, and how the narrator was deeply in love with him. “Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods; ”. At the end of this poem, Audin personifies the sun, moon, ocean, and woods; he does not see any point in there beauty