The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

John M. Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America, communicates his fascination with the Mississippi River by using diction, imagery, and syntax. Barry’s word choice conveys the mechanical force of the river; his use of imagery the beauty, and his use of syntax the unpredictability. Barry’s command of rhetorical devices draws the reader in and brings the Mississippi River to life.

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.

Emily Dickinson's poem "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" is centralized on the events of death and is spoken through the voice of the dying person. The poem explores both the meaning of life and death through the speaker and the significant incidents at the time of near death that the speaker notices. Many of Dickinson's poems contain a theme of death that searches to find meaning and the ability to cope with the inevitable. This poem is no exception to this traditional Dickinson theme; however its unusual comparisons and language about death set it apart from how one would view a typically tragic event.

This poem is like an extended metaphor because it refers to death as being dark like the night time

Throughout the entire book of The Sun Also Rises, hardly a page goes by without referencing any alcohol. From the very beginning of the book, the main character/protagonist, Jake meets a young prostitute named Georgette and they have drinks together. She states that, “Everybody’s sick. I’m sick too”. Bars, dance clubs, cafes where alcohol is served seems to be a place of escape for a majority of the characters. Jake Barnes, like the other characters, uses the consumption of alcohol to escape what realities he face at home, his lust for Brett, but also to forget the things of his past.

The author wants the audience to do something with the time they are given and to realize that life is more than just a blank slate waiting to be filled up. Another primary focus in this poem in the beginning is when Longfellow is setting the stage and mentions how he believes humans should end their life. “Not enjoyment, and not sorrow / Is our destin’d end or way,” was Longfellow’s way of communicating the thought that people are not striving to end life in happiness or in sorrow, but rather to end it having felt accomplished (9). These several lines that seem to be aimed toward the dead are really geared more towards the living than anybody. They are targeted towards those who are living, but not acting like it - so, someone who lazes around and neglects all responsibilities. Finally, in the line immediately preceding the one just stated, Longfellow mentions the harsh realities of life. “Life is real - life is earnest,” meaning that things are not always going to be okay and may seem like they are too difficult to handle, but, the whole purpose in life is to be able to rebound from these times. A Psalm of Life was published around 1838, and just three years before, Longfellow’s wife died due to miscarriage complications. By understanding that this poem was written as a form of therapy to the author in how he chose to handle a harsh situation, readers are able to specifically grasp the

Many themes can be interpreted by reading the poem “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died” but two themes seem to stick out. Mortality and family. Family is a big part of a deathbed scene. Dickinson uses the theme mortality in the poem to explore all kinds of thing about death. She thinks about how it feels, happens, what we expect

Each of these poems takes a slightly different approach when discussing death while also having showing many similarities in its use of imagery. Both Millay and Thomas use natural imagery devices to showcase how death is a natural part of the cycle of life, while also dealing with the dissonance it causes. Thomas repeatedly uses light and dark imagery as a way to represent the contrast between life and death. Here we can find many instances that show how death is inevitable for all, no matter how bravely or intelligent one lived. While struggling to accept this notion, Thomas urges his father to fight against death by repeating that he should, “rage against the dying of the light.” He uses the visual image of the dying light to convince his father that life is much brighter than death. He is arguing that we should fight through the pains and hardships we my face to live in the light and that each life is precious and we should not let ourselves be overcome by the darkness. Millay also uses natural imagery to point out the divide between life and death. She references the darkness of the grave while juxtaposing this with symbols of life, including roses and lilies. This is used to illustrate the experience of natural life, where we grow like

The power of the poet is not only to convey an everyday scene into a literary portrait of words, but also to interweave this scene into an underlying theme. The only tool the poet has to wield is the word. Through a careful placement and selection of words, the poet can hopefully make his point clear, but not blatantly obvious. Common themes of poems are life, death, or the conflicting forces thereto. This theme could never possibly be overused because of the endless and limitless ways of portraying life or death through the use of different words.

The poem may have been read and understood differently but the theme of the poem was that the things that occur in life happen because that’s the way of life. The poem explains that a man passes away after being alive and compares it to the fact that after a tide rises it also dies when it falls.

     With poems often being short in length, symbolism helps the author expand on a theme by using very little words. In ?Because i could not stop for Death,? Dickinson uses symbolism to give more substance to the journey with ?Death?. Dickinson symbolizes the ride in general as being a ride past her life to eternity. The setting sun is also a symbol for her dying life. As the sun sets and ends another day, her life ends as ?Death? takes her toward eternity. Thomas H. Johnson interprets this by saying ?the sun passed them, as it of course does all who are in the grave? (Johnson). In both cases, Dickinson symbolizes the ?sun? as a way of ending things, connecting it to the character's ending life. Dickinson also uses the third stanza as a symbol of how everything will go on normally while the character is being lead to the afterlife. The children and grain are growing which represents new life or the future (Melani). This symbol shows that ?Death? does not control everything, but can control on thing at a time. Symbolism is a key to many poems, to help the reader think deeper into the poem itself.

A common theme in many poems is life and death, especially the one of a loved one, this theme is one of the similarities in both poems “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “ Poem at thirty-nine.” “Do not gentle into that good night,” written by Dylan Thomas, is dedicated to his dying father in the poem who he commands to fight death. Correspondingly that “Poem at thirty-nine,” written by Alice Walker, is written for her father informs him about her life now and the impact he had made. In both poems imagery and repetition, diction, and chronological structure are used to convey to the reader the passing of life and to honor their fathers.

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.

A metaphysical conceit is a striking and effective comparison used my metaphysical poets to establish a relationship between two things for the sake of being strange. I feel that John Donne captured this literary technique the best in his two famous poems “The Flea” and “The Sun Rising.” The major image in the “The Flea” is of course, the flea. He is comparing the flea to his lover’s and his “marriage bed and temple.” He is trying to show his lover that, even though she won’t have premarital sex with him, that they are intertwined within the body of the flea. They are more than married because the flea has mingled his blood, her blood, and its blood to create a union more than marriage. Saying that it would be a sin to kill the flea because