Comparing Walt Whitman And Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are two of the most famous poets in American literature. Whitman’s poetic style still is considered Avant Garde. His poetic structure dances near the doorway of free verse, while his subject matter explores the depths of topics in his time. Whitman several ideas and thoughts that were oblivious to human minds before him; however, he is not alone in this effort. Emily Dickinson is thought to have been a religious introvert and while this assumption seems to reveal itself in her work it does not account for all of it. Dickinson’s poems capture the essence of what it means to be opinionated yet still tethered to religious views. Individually these poets have many differences between them, but when examined closely these two epic poets share some common ground.

In many of their poems both Whitman and Dickinson manifest the theme of death’s limits. For example, Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” discusses the experiences of one man and how despite “A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,” which is line 65 in his poem. This line suggests that time and death as a result of time passing cannot be experiences.. Emily Dickinson’s line 479 also manifests the theme of deaths limits. Dickinson writes: “Because I could not stop for Death-He kindly

In her poem Line 384, Dickinson articulates the concept of death rather than the reality. For example, “I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain”, which is line 85 provides the intro to a poem clearly “thinking” about death rather than experiencing it. As well as “My Mind was going numb. Whitman’s “The Wound Dresser” on the other hand discusses the actuality of death. Unlike the women in Dickinson’s line 340 the male in Whitman’s The lines and many more are in fact concrete evidence to the actuality of death in this