Whitman Vs. Dickinson Essay, Research Paper

Whitman Vs. Dickinson

By Monica Perez

Death ; expiration of critical being ; go throughing off of the physical province. Diing comes along with a pool of emotions that authors have many times tried to explicate. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were two pioneer poets from the Romantic Era, that introduced new, freer manners of composing to modern poesy at the clip. Both Whitman and Dickinson have similar thoughts in their authorship, but each has a alone touch of look in their plants. Both poets have portrayed decease in their poesy as a alleviation, a redemption, or flight to a better place- another life. They have formulated decease as a positive yet equivocal province. In Dickinson & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; Narrow Fellow in the Grass & # 8221 ; and Whitman & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; Wound-Dresser & # 8221 ; , there exists a nexus in both poets thoughts of decease through each persons manner of authorship.

Both poets, through their distinguishable voice and word-choice, arrive at the same decision of decease being a good and positive thing. Whitman & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; Wound-Dresser & # 8221 ; tells the narrative of an old adult male retrieving his war-tales of watching soldiers die. These deceasing soldiers resemble Jesus, they were deceasing for a cause ; for their state ; for a & # 8220 ; universe of addition and visual aspect and hilarity & # 8221 ; ( line 21 ) . This resemblance brings the spiritual intension into the verse form. He compares the soldiers ( Jesus ) to nature, & # 8220 ; like a swift-running river they fade & # 8221 ; ( line 18 ) ; which gives the feeling that to him, God is nature. Whitman besides incorporates phrases such as, & # 8220 ; I am faithful & # 8221 ; ( line 56 ) to reenforce this spiritual intension. After all, decease is in many ways related to faith, every faith has a theory on decease. He states: & # 8220 ; -poor boy! I ne’er knew you/ Yet I think I could non decline this minute to decease for you, if that would save/ You & # 8221 ; ( lines 37-39 ) . Here, Whitman is presenting his credence for decease. He is non afraid to decease for this Boy. Whitman besides describes decease in a really delicate mode, which allows the reader to experience that decease is in a manner, good. For case, he describes the soldiers as noisy in war, but when they die, there is silence. Silence resembles decease, yet it & # 8217 ; s non a negative manner of showing it. As the poet encounters with more memories of agony, he calls to decease: & # 8220 ; Come sweet decease! be persuaded O beautiful decease! / In mercy come rapidly & # 8221 ; ( lines 44-45 ) . He believes decease will relieve the strivings and that it is good. Another delicate manner of depicting decease, and an first-class pick of words, is when he says he recalls & # 8220 ; the experience ( as ) Sweet and sad & # 8221 ; ( line 63 ) These immature soldiers have so much life in front of them and they are deceasing, this makes it & # 8216 ; sad & # 8217 ; . Yet since they are enduring so much, it & # 8217 ; s & # 8216 ; sweet & # 8217 ; that they die. In this peculiar verse form, Whitman portrays an attitude of positive welcoming of decease.

The positive mentality that Whitman portrays towards decease in his verse form the & # 8220 ; Wound-Dresser & # 8221 ; , is likewise shown

in Emily Dickinson’s “Narrow Fellow in the Grass” . She tells a simple narrative with impressive word picks that allow for deep reading and symbolism. Her verse form narrates the narrative of a dead adult male puting on the land that looks as if “the Grass divides as with a comb-” ( line 5 ) . “He ( intending the dead adult male ) likes Boggy Acre/ A Floor excessively cool for Corn-” ( lines 9-10 ) . Notice as she uses the word ‘likes’ as if the dead adult male still lived or had feelings towards the topographic point where he died. It seems as if she was beliing her Puritan decent by in a manner believing in an hereafter. The dead adult male chose a ‘boggy acre’ . Boggy is a rich, mineral-filled dirt that is near to a organic structure of H2O. Water represent purification, but it’s besides one of the four elements of life ; earth, H2O, fire and air, therefore it besides represents Life. Yet the ‘floor is excessively cool for corn’ . Corn grows in hot, dry topographic points. This imperturbability ( winter ) is the representation of decease. What Dickinson could be seeking to state through these simple sentences, is that the adult male is populating after decease. This representation of an after-life besides gives the feeling that, similar to Whitman, she welcomes decease. “I feel for them ( dead people ) a transport/ Of cordiality” ( lines 19-20 ) . She’s speaking about a conveyance of deceasing as if traveling to another life. Yet, it’s a conveyance of amity which puts decease in a soft mode, farther observing her positive mentality on it.

Whitman and Dickinson both describe decease as a positive event in a individual & # 8217 ; s life, yet both poets arrive at same decisions of decease through different processs. They have their alone manners of portraying similar positions. Whitman & # 8217 ; s poem the & # 8220 ; Wound-Dresser & # 8221 ; is really drawn-out and descriptive. He uses adjective-filled sentences to depict emotions towards peculiar state of affairss, enabling the reader to experience through his places. His work is more like a narrative in a poetic signifier. Unlike Whitman, Dickinson is really concise and equivocal in her accounts. She is really bemused with item, but allows the reader to construe her symbolic word-choice via imaginativeness. Her tone to the verse form is really innocent-like and simple, yet with much significance if read between the lines. Whitman & # 8217 ; s tone on the other manus, is more straightforward, dramatic and impacting. He describes in more gross item.

Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman each differ in the mode in which they write ; they each have alone manners. Though they differ in the tone and voice, they arrive at similar decisions of decease in their verse form & # 8220 ; Wound-Dresser & # 8221 ; ( by Whitman ) and & # 8220 ; Narrow Fellow in the Grass & # 8221 ; ( by Dickinson ) . Whitman explains the mending consequence that decease brings to enduring people as sweet and sad. Whilst Dickinson shows marks of decease being a way to an hereafter. Both poets portray decease as being good.

Bibliography

The Norton Anthology of American Literatutre. shorter 5th edition. norton publication. London, new York. 1999