Emily Dickinson’s Poem 422

W.H Auden’s “Funeral Blues,” Carolyn Forche’s “The Memory of Elena,” and Emily Dickinson’s “The last Night that She lived” are all poems which share death as their subject matter, but differ in the fact that they discuss death in a unique style with a variety of literary devices to make them more effective. Upon reading these poems, I could relate to each strongly on a personal level. Each poem expresses a different view of death and the different stages of acceptance and grieving. When I was younger, my grandmother passed away. I was quite fond of my grandmother and she and I had a close relationship.

Reoccurring Theme of Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson There is a reoccurring theme of death in the poems of Emily Dickinson. This can be seen in poems such as “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died”, “My Life Has Stood A Loaded Gun,” “My Life Closed Twice Before It Closed,” “Heaven is What I Cannot Reach,” and “Death Sets A Thing Significant.” While some of Dickinson’s poems talk about death in an inviting and unafraid way others present the subject in tones of grief and sadness. Most of her poems that deal with death, depends on the continued life of the mind or at least up to the final moment. Dickinson also personifies death making it seem all the more real. To understand the poet’s fascination with

“She mentioned, and forgot—“, refers to her attempt to announce her farewell to everyone, which connects to the previous line’s announcement. The dashes fig... ... middle of paper ... ...e questions than before which cause the speaker’s confusion to increase. The speaker’s yearning for death shifts after the realization that it also creates problems because complications occur in life and death. The speaker started the poem by desiring the privilege of death through the use of similes, metaphors, and several other forms of language. As the events progress, the speaker gradually changes their mind because of the many complications that death evokes.

Sexton’s Emotional Journey Death can represent a multitude of things. For example, it can be depicted as a villain that will eventually claim everyone, or it could represent the escape from the world that someone has always been seeking. Regardless, dying is the end to everyone’s life. However, the poem "Sylvia 's Death" by Anne Sexton regards thoughts of death as well as the act of suicide as an escape from reality and the problems the world presents. Sexton utilizes organized couplets to resonate the speaker’s depression in order to emphasize the change in tone throughout the poem, which evolves as the speaker accepts the unfortunate news of Plath’s death.

The story revolves around the death of the husband and the misery that the wife should be feeling. Then there is the poem ―What the Living Do,‖ which also revolves around the death a loved one. In the poem, the main character seems to truly have sadness towards the death of the loved one, in this way the two works differ. The last piece of literature is Trifles, which like the first two works deals with the death of a loved one, but in this piece of literature the audience gets insight into the main character‘s past. With this knowledge, the audience is more likely to relate with Mrs. Wright from Trifles, even though she did murder her husband.

Death in Young Gal’s Blues, One Day I Wrote Her Name, and Song on The End of the World Death is inevitable. It can inspire, it can cause sadness, and it can cause grief. The poets Langston Hughes, Edmund Spenser and Czelsaw Milosz are able to describe death so beautifully that the reader is consumed by each poem and almost forgets the dark nature of each poem, which is death. The poems by these three poets explore different aspects of death and how it makes one feel. Hughes’ “Young Gal’s Blues” (910) is about a young girl contemplating death, and the fact that she would rather die young than grow old, therefore, the idea of death is explored from the perspective of a young girl.

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson’s poetry is very different; however death seems to be a familiar topic amongst both poets. Opposites attract, and you could say the same for Whitman and Dickinson because though they have different writing styles both repeatedly write about death. Once more, although both Whitman and Dickinson have many different feelings about death, they also share many similar feelings about it as well. Although Walt Whitman's poetry is rather long and quite simple and Emily Dickinson's are often short and complex, the theme of death strongly ties their works together. To begin with, both Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson spoke about not only a person dying, but the people who were left to live through that person’s death.

Death is inevitable and a lifelong process in every individual’s life. Most importantly, we are unaware of when or how it will happen and, because death can come at a time when we least expect it, it allows some individuals to fear death. In both poems, Lady Lazarus and Daddy, by Sylvia Plath, show different ways to view death. In Lady Lazarus, Plath talks about the characters attempts to commit suicide. Throughout the poem, we discover that the first time she tried to commit suicide was an accident while her second and third time were intentional.

In poetry, death is referred as the end of literature and it is associated with feeling of sorrows. However Emily Dickinson demonstrates that death is not the end of literature or feeling of sadness but death is a new element of inspiration in poetry and is the beginning of a new chapter in our life. In the poem ‘’Because I Could Not Stop for Death’, she discusses the encounter of a women with death, who passed away centuries ago. Dickenson uses metaphors and similes to show that the process of dying can be an enjoyable moment by appreciating the good moments in life, and by respecting death rather than fearing it. Also Dickinson portrays death in a humorous way as she compares it to man seducing her to go to her death as well, to childhood games that show the innocence of this encounter (Bloom).

The author speaks of how her younger sister passed away and how heartbroken their mother was. Now it seems she is faced with her first born possibly dying in an untimely manner. 	Instead of devoting the poem to just simply her pain, anguish, and suffering, she broadens the topic of death and applies it to society and the environment in a way that cause me to reflect. She asks questions regarding what will happen if all life dyies, all creatures, signifing how death effects everyone and has is nondiscriminant in its quest. Questions arise about the past and future and, when something dies, what possibly becomes of that potential future or, in fact, there ever was one.