Poetry Essay

716 Words3 Pages
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost are the poems that I have chosen for this assignment. Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost are two Modern American Poets who consistently wrote about the theme of death. In “Because I could not Stopped for Death”, Dickinson provides detailed information and description of feelings when she expresses her vision of her own death. The poem is about journey after life, which is inevitable and may be unpleasant. In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, the poem deals with one’s responsibilities and obligations in the journey of life before death. This essay is an analysis of what the speaker is trying to say, and I will compare and contrast some ideas. Dickinson shows that death does not need to be painful. Her poem maintains a soft tone, by using words like “slowly” and “passed”. A few lines in the poem set a nice scene. For instance, “We slowly drove-He knew no haste”, “We passed the School, where Children strove”, “We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain”, “We passed the Setting Sun” (5, 9, 11, 12). Repetition of the word “passed” several times show that in her journey towards the eternity, she gradually leaves behind her legacy. As for Frost, he uses everyday words that we would use in conversation. Frost’s poem moves from a more conversational tone to the nicer, more heartfelt tone. The language does demonstrate this change: from the colloquial “Whose woods these are I think I know.” To the poetic “Of easy wind and downy flake”, “the woods are lovely, dark and deep,” (1, 12, 13) we can see changes in the speaker’s attitude as if he answers the questions why he stopped by the woods. Aside from that, the closing repetition of the last stanza is, “and miles to go before I sleep,” “and miles to go before I sleep” (15, 16) emphasizes the speaker’s commitment to
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