Ellen Barker Dr. Kobeleva English 1102 October 20, 2010 Two Poems Concerning Death: Dickinson vs. Donne Death has been a popular topic discussed for many centuries because people want to know what happens to someone when they die. Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” and John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” are two classic poems written in two different centuries that personifies death but take the readers on two different journeys to conclude to the same theme. Donne’s poem was written sometime between 1601 and 1610; whereas, Dickinson’s poem was written in 1863, which proves that the topic of death has been discussed, especially in literature, throughout many centuries. Both poems personify death to reveal the central meaning of their poem, but they personify death differently. The central meaning of both poems is death should not be feared for there is eternal life after this life.
Tradition has manipulated the mind of the eager children to “stuffed [their] pockets full of stones,” (43) before the lottery has even begun. Tradition has controlled the mind of the children to just follow along with the tradition without really allowing them to critically think if what they are doing is correct or not. Furthermore, tradition of the lottery is more of an obligation for the village to fulfill rather than a ritual they embrace. The black box that is part of the lottery “was put away, sometimes one place, sometimes another,” (45) shows how the villagers couldn’t care more about keepsake of the box. If the villagers had truly valued the tradition of the lottery the black box would have been kept with better care, yet the careless storage of the box depicts the villagers are feeling the need to continue the regular tradition.
In order to emphasise Larkin’s outlooks onto time and it’s passing, one can highlight the similarities and differences between Larkin and Abse’s poetry. In ‘Love Songs In Age’, Larkin illustrates the view that time and it’s passing merely leads to many disappointments. The enjambment he uses amongst all three stanzas, “and stood/relearning” in the first and second and “more/the glare” between the second and third; this implies the suggestion that love cannot stop the passing of time and the instances that happen within it, for example the death of the woman’s husband. During the first stanza, Larkin uses imagery to create a memoir of the music sheets that the woman has found, “one marked in circles”, “and coloured”, suggesting that the joy of life, love and happiness isn’t appreciated until age shows what one has missed during their youth. We can then imply from this suggestion that Larkin feels time is only appreciated during the older years of one’s life.
Themes are arguably the essence of literature, giving words purpose or intention or atmosphere and feeling. Amongst the most used themes in all of literature would have to be that of time. Time is a man-made concept, created to indicate moments in the natural progression of existence. Thematically, time can encompass many other feelings and concepts such as regret, contemplation, nostalgia and sadness, which can be evoked through longing for a 'moment' in time. Each poem I have chosen reflects aspects of contemplation, sadness or regret.
Similar to most of the poems in Birthday Letters, it is in free verse. A stream of consciousness, conveying the spill of emotions or arguably, the confusion entangled within Hughes’ relationship with Plath. Hughes begins to blame himself for the downfall of Plath in describing that she could have been saved by ‘the right witchdoctor’, implying that the right person could have been a form of medicine for her. The asyndeton slows the poem down, putting Hughes in a positive light in that he wants to hold on to his wife for as long as possible before the inevitable ending takes her from him. He highlights that the inevitability of the situation could not be changed, yet the verb ‘save’ expresses Hughes’ feelings of guilt.
Whitman's poem is really long it has a lot of symbolism, imagery, descriptions and whatever else you can name. It’s easy to become distracted by the many details of the poem, but with reasonable attention you can infer the underlying message he is trying to get across. This has to do of course, with his whole philosophy of the "self". Although his poem is told from his point of view and uses and some references to his own life, this "self' is not referring to only Whitman. It is a general reference to humanity as a whole.
Death is the main theme of both sonnets but the tone may differ a little. The tone of Sonnet 71 is a sad but at the same time concern and apologetic, in the other hand the tone of Sonnet 73 is only sad. In both poems the writers are embracing death and are trying to say goodbye to their love ones. In Sonnet 71 we see it more accurately “Nay, if you read this line, remember not the hand that writ it; for I love you so that I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot if thinking on me then should make you woe”; as well we see how the tone is because even though he is sad he is going to die he is more concern about his beloved, he doesn’t want her to suffer when he is gone “Lest the wise world should look into your moan, And mock you with me after I am gone..” In Sonnet 73 we may think the writer is sad and is only trying to say goodbye, but in lines 13 and 14 _“ This is thou perceives, which makes thy love more strong. To love that well which _thou must leave ere long” there is a twist in which we may observe he is talking to his beloved and how their love is going to live forever.
Although death is one of the most used themes of Emily Dickinson in her poems, the readers wouldn’t feel boring because those poems provide us with different perspective of life and death. Through Dickinson’s poems, we are able to see death as sometimes gentle, sometimes menacing, and sometimes simply inevitable. However, these different understandings of death could be her way of imagining, knowing, or informing us what death is. Most of these poems of Emily Dickinson are written in quatrains and usually rhyming only on the second and fourth lines. Other stanzas show triplets or pairs of couplets, and some employ longer, looser, and more complicated stanzas.
| Short Stories and Poems with the Central Theme of Death In literary history, there are a great many poems and stories that deal with the theme of death. Many use personification to give more character to the idea of death. Others use symbolism to recreate certain feelings associated with death. Many times though, as with life, death is the final outcome of the story, giving it a more dramatic meaning to the literary work as a whole. Death can mean so many things though.
What is poetry “If normal sentences are orange squash, poetry is like the syrup before it is diluted.” Poetry has always been considered as a compressed and sophisticated form of literature while critics and readers have long been trying to work out a definition for it. However, there are always poems that do not seem to fit into the numerous conclusions they have drawn and the debate on whether poetry should be defined has therefore arose. Even so, critics have reached consensus on the characteristics of generally recognised poetry and the features of it through reading and analysing poetry of different centuries. In light of the above, this essay will explore the generally accepted features and techniques observable in poetry, the function of poetry and the reason why poetry should not be defined. Firstly, to answer the question, readers must be familiar with the common characteristics of poetry such as line breaks, the wide use of figures of speech and techniques, and the expression of various themes and meanings through limited number of lines.