ents to her and for others.
             Historically, Smith was quite involved both cognitively and physically with the Christian realm of the world from her baptism as an infant straight through to her funeral in the Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity. She did not appear to have scurried away from the Christian world and theologies that surrounded this religion's persona. Smith was aware of the presence of the Christian tradition and even the existence of a holy omnipotent somewhere beyond where mortal eyes can see. She had knowledge of that presence. Tillich stated, "An existential knowledge is a knowledge in which these elements, and therefore the whole existence of him who knows, participate" (124). Smith had knowledge of her surroundings within a Christian society and was gaining courage to be as herself within that environment.
             She was unsure, however, of where she fit into a courageous role of being staunchly independent and openly proud to be who she was. For at the same time she had discovered existential knowledge was a key to understanding if she could only get involved within its structure. Soon she would learn a disheartening truth. "In all existential knowledge, both subject and object are transformed by the very act of knowing" (124). She discovered the one truth she could always rely on. This was that by looking for the truth, one always inadvertently changes it. By searching for answers within the infrastructure, the product only dampened her spirits.
             Thus she began grappling within her poetry regarding the idea that we "are able to transcend, in knowledge and life, the finitude, estrangement, and the ambiguities of human existence" (125). She focused many of her poetic topics towards the acceptance of Death toward her position in life. "Come Death" and "Tender Only to One" are both vivid examples of how Smith seemed to dislike life and taunt Death to arri...