Topic > A Theme of Death The Poems of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

IndexSimilarities between Dickinson's poetry and the work of Walt WhitmanHistorical ContextThe theme of death in "I Heard the Funeral in My Brain"ConclusionReferencesThe purpose of this essay is show and analyze the differences and similarities that Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman had in relation to the symbol of death, as they expressed this topic in their poems, not only in terms of the structure with which they used it in writing, but also in the way they which both give it this meaning. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To achieve this goal and how some facts of their life are related to the topic discussed in this essay, the authors will be analyzed in common terms of a recurring topic that the two talked about in some of their poems. First, it is necessary to contextualize the reader in relation to these two authors and the facts that would inspire and influence them to write about death. On the one hand, Dickinson had a close relationship with death, experiencing it throughout her life, making death a recurring topic in her poems. On the other hand, Whitman had a close connection with death during the Civil War, witnessing images and scenes of the cruelties that this war offered, observing the human remains that flooded battlefield hospitals, and how these people died before of him; these events had a great impact on his poems and also on the way he viewed human beings. Similarities Between Dickinson's Poetry and the Work of Walt Whitman Dickinson and Whitman have many similarities through their relationship in transcendentalism and were also recognized as founders of American philosophical poetry, yet there are many differences, from writing to perception of life. Walt Whitman is a follower of poetry in which he talks about the joys of life, but at the same time he is a poet of the dead. Whitman's poetry illustrates the universal truth that death is not only the most overwhelming and least understood event of our existence, but also the most interesting. From the beginning of his poetic career he understood that he must speak about death in an open and imaginative way. As he tries to convince the audience that death is not a terrible ending to life and that immortality is a pursuit, Whitman's character takes a lot of ideas. He also confesses and imagines many types of empty-headed experiences and contemplates his own death through fantasies. His statements about death may hurt the reader, who may see him as tempting, contradictory, or provocative. It is rarely doctrinal; he never develops a first coherent theory of death. And, as his poems attest, he is self-aware, of the limited capacity to understand cosmic truths while struggling to maintain a humane and ameliorative belief. Confronted in every way with contradictory evidence and ideological conceptions, he chooses to preserve his situation, convinced that his wisdom in death is as valid as any argument or body of evidence. In "Song of Myself", Walt Whitman does not capitalize death, personifying it as Emily Dickinson, "Song of Myself", as a normal process, as a law of nature, as a beginning process rather than an end Whitman denies the meaning of death as a negative aspect of life and attributes positive qualities to itHistorical contextWhitman and Dickinson, two American poets, lived and wrote poems during the Civil War. Dickinson did not interact with the world around her as Whitman did, but part of her body was written during the Civil War. One of Dickinson's most famous poems about war opens like this: It's a shame to bealive —/ When such brave men — are dead —” clearly posing a question about the value of life and death in war. Dresser,” found in the mid-war poems, Whitman writes that “Excited and angry, I had thought of sounding the alarm and/ Urging relentless war.” This quote sums up the entire tone of the first part of Drum-Taps and it is the best explanation of how Whitman saw the advent of war. This spirit finds its way into much of ancient poetry, including the three early poems that will be analyzed in this article, but only one of these three can be considered truly autobiographical. “First O Songs For A Prelude” opens this work and sets the tone for the first half by expressing the chauvinistic tone of the beginning of the war while acknowledging that some sacrifices will be made Overall, it can certainly be called a celebration of the dominant American spirit, but despite all this it provides a clear vision of how Whitman saw the war and, by extension, how he saw America This vision of America is extremely important because, as noted above, it influences every poem.'Theme of death in 'I felt Funeral in my Brain'The focal point of the poem is death, which is actually a physical death, a desperate attempt to remove the pain of the mind by repression or cessation of consciousness or mental dislocation. "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain", like many of Dickinson's poems, deals with the theme of death. In particular she likes to address the theme of the moment of death and burial. The whole scene takes place in the speaker's brain, in his mind and in his soul. She's not sure if it's happening in her mind, a huge, empty world containing an entire universe, or if the speaker is dead or alive. “I felt a funeral in my brain” by Emily Dickinson is a terrible poem that follows the speaker's mad fall. The speaker is confronted with the loss of self in the chaos of the unconscious, and the reader senses the speaker's ascending madness. Dickinson uses the funeral metaphor to represent the speaker's feeling that a part of himself is lost, dying, overwhelmed by irrationality. of the unconscious. A funeral is a good image for this attempt. The most obvious connotation with a funeral is death. Life, death, and reincarnation are depicted in Emily Dickinson's poem "I Heard a Funeral in My Brain." The use of words associated with death gives the poem an extraordinary and dark atmosphere. At the beginning of this poem, sensations of pain are evident, but not physical or mental pain, a pain that comes from the most hidden place of the speaker's consciousness, in a state of impossibility with respect to the world. In a first reading of the poem, the speaker must make a choice between a world full of problems and pain or a paradise that brings solitude and peace. This is all part of a vicious circle. This is clearly reflected at the end of the poem. The speaker lives life, moves away and is reborn again in this world, in all this poetry. It is a condensed poem with striking images and surprising ideas about the irrationality of human beings. It is a terrifying poem that allows readers to imagine themselves in their place, experiencing their own death in full awareness. This poem is not just a description of the physical death of the speaker, but rather a description of the death of a part of the speaker, namely the death of his mental health. The most likely interpretation the speaker describes is actually the life of his own burial in consciousness. The sensation of hearing and the ability to hear the speaker is one of the main points of the poem and describes the sound of a loud box. The 'box' is capitalized because it means importance. While the speaker feels a large box, he also feels something “painful in his heart.” When the'