Death: A Relative Topic
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst Massachusetts, in 1830 and died in 1886. A shy, reclusive person, Dickinson has come to be known as one of America's greatest poets. Even though only seven of Dickinson's poems were published in her lifetime, her poetry was published after her death and was available to the public in 1890. The subjects of her poems were mainly of love, death, nature, immortality, and beauty. One of Dickinson's better known poems that involves the theme of death would be titled, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," first published in 1890. In the poem, the character of death is personified as a human being, which is one of the early examples of Death becoming one of the great characters of literature. Often compared to Emily Dickinson, the poet Christina Rossetti was born in 1830 in London, England and died in 1894. Early illness had a great effect on her poetry. As stated by her brother, "she was compelled, even if not naturally disposed, to regard this world as a 'valley of the shadow of death." Depressive and reclusive, she lived a simple life. Like Dickinson, Rossetti's subjects were mostly love and death. The theme of death is present in her final poem shortly before her death entitled, "Sleeping
Death can be sometimes described as "eternal rest. The relieved, peaceful tone of the poem also contributes to the optimistic view on death that can be found through the repeated phrase of "sleeping at last. The significance of the theme of death in the two poems is that death is universal, because we can all relate to death one way or another. The setting sun could be a type of visual imagery. The journey in the carriage is a last ride for the speaker towards eternity. Usually when we think of death, we have a dark vision of it. " Most of the time, when we think of rest, we usually associated it with sleep. In her article "The Poetry of Emily Dickinson," author Martha Hale Shackford writes of Dickinson's take on death and other topics: "Without elaborate philosophy, yet with irresistible ways of expression, Emily Dickinson's poems have true lyric appeal, because they make abstractions, such as love, hope, loneliness, death, and immortality, seem near and intimate and faithful. Landow, Professor of English and Art History at Brown University, states of Rossetti's use of symbolism: "Like many of her contemporaries, including her brother, Tennyson, both Brownings, and Hopkins, she occasionally makes elaborate uses of typological symbolism. Many times we will associate the end of something with the sunset. At Last," written in 1894, where death is symbolized through sleep. Almost everyone has seen a setting sun and could picture it (the orange glow over the horizon, for example) if they read about it. The speaker and Death were in no hurry, so they slowly drove peacefully, passing the schoolyard, fields, and setting sun. " Personification plays a big part in that Death himself is personified. Usually we associate sleep with death.
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