Death in the Poems of Emily Dickinson and William Butler Yeats

The two verses under investigation in this paper, conclusion is a Dialogue by Emily Dickinson and ending by William Butler Yeats are short commentaries on devastation and what it represents for hu hu bitness beingnesss. As it sh each be seen, the poesys evince a similar approach to the end theme, although they alike point the marks of several(predicate) historical place settings. Both poets are extremely original in their thinking and writing, up to now it is possible to identify the influences that molded their work. In her poem, Dickinson regards expiration as a mere separation in the midst of the body and the notion before the passage into the afterlife. The apprise poem has the form of a dramatic order, being structured as a dialogue surrounded by decease and the hu cosmos spirit. Yeats poem also speaks of finale in derisive and ironic full terms. Although the t ane of the poem is indisputably ironic, the poem is severed by inner tensions soldiery seems to b e adapted to conquer death still, at the said(prenominal) time, death holds absolute sway everywhere his life. Essentially, the two poems are comparable in their compute of death, each transposing the ceaseless battle between the soaring and lofty human spirit and the merciless death.Dickinsons poem imagines a contention between death and the human spirit. The dust is a metaphor for the genuine founding that has totally limited power when compared to the world of timeless existence. Dickinson launchs death to have a limited context it can only act within the man of matter and it cannot touch the human spirit conclusion is a Dialogue betweenThe disposition and the Dust.Dissolve says remainder The Spirit SirI have another Trust (Dickinson 217)The term trust is very significant, pointing to Dickinsons desire to read belief in the afterlife. The death of the body is inevitable, unless the spirit leave behind triumph over the common matter in the end. Trust is oppos ed in the next stanza to doubt. This contrast enhances nevertheless pass on the idea of the ultimate victory of the spiritDeath doubts it Argues from the Ground The Spirit turns awayJust laying clear up for evidenceAn overcoating of Clay. (Dickinson 217)Death argues from the ground, being therefore nailed down in the material world and able to bring only scientific arguments in its own favor, while the spirit proudly produces the ultimate evidence for its triumph it strips off the coat of clay, i.e. the body, and wanders away. According to Thomas W. hybridizing, this dramatic sequence shows Dickinsons desire to believe in eternity and heaven and to reject the acute, scientific proof The Spirit in the dialogue represents Emily Dickinsons desire to believe in eternity, the Dust represents the observed facts (Ford 126). The battle between the rational and irrational is obvious in these lines.Dickinson twists the argument in favor of the human spirit, letting irrationality show i ts evidence and denying the validity of the scientific approaches to death. Thomas W. Ford observes that Dickisons office towards death was markedly influenced by her tensioned relationship with pietism, especially Puritanism. As the critic notes, Dickinsons inner argue with ultimate acceptance of religion is obvious in some of her letters and passim her work Dickinson early in life was earnestly worried over being left come forth of Christs love since she had never personally experienced both form of conversion.Her interest in death was an outlook of a continuing and profound concern over her own salvation (Ford 39). Dickinsons personal struggle with the acceptance of faith and the influence of Puritanical perspective are both reflected in her poem. It can be even said that the struggle portrayed in the poem resembles the battle between rational estimate and faith, which took place in Dickinsons own mind.Yeats poem Death was published in the verse appealingness The Windi ng Stair and Other Poems that appeared in 1933. Yeats is one of the most influential modernists and he is well cognize for his endeavor to create his own mythology in his works. The poem under analysis seems to be severed in two violates. The prototypic bring out shows mans permanent struggle with death and his tendency to hand all his hopes and fears around the concept of death. The second part brings the opposite view to light man is also a murderer and he dominates death through with(predicate) his consummate knowledge of its inner workings. The first part of the poem compares the reaction of fleshlys and that of humans in earlier of deathNor dread nor hope attendA dying animalA man awaits his endDreading and hoping all (Yeats 3)While animals are so-so(p) to the meaning of death and only react to it as they would to any other natural phenomena, man is forever and a day tormented by the thought of death. Yeats observes the paradoxical attitude of man in front of death on the one hand, man clings to the thought of death with all his hopes and dreams and, at the same time, he associates death with his superlative and darkest fears. The second part of the poem almost reverses the sign perspective on death man is the chasten of death, through his intimate knowledge of itA salient man in his prideConfronting murderous menCasts derision uponSupersession of soupconHe knows death to the bone Man has created death. (Yeats 3)The lead line of the stanza might seem an overstatement, at first glance. Yeats liberal assertion that man has created death has many a(prenominal) different implications. On the one hand, man is able to be a murderer and thus he knows death to the bone. This is not the sole explanation however. The creation of death is obviously a paradox. In his pride, man does not fear death and is even able to deride. Harold Bloom contends that the poem implies death does not exist in fact, as Yeats had also argued in A Vision (Bloom 372). In this sense, the idea proposed by Yeats seems to be very similar to that of Emily Dickinson.However, on a closer look, the Irish poet entertains a somewhat different view of humanitys relationship with death. As a modernist, he sees the resourcefulness of mans creative spirit as apt to boldness death and defeat it. Man proudly ignores biological death not because he knows his soul will go to a Christian heaven afterwards, but because he believes in the impossibility of death. According to Yeats, man does not find salvation in the theology as such, but in the creative forces that lively everything. The poet researchs death from a modernist and aesthetic perspective man is an inventor and a dauntless spirit and for him death does not exist.Thus, Dickinsons and Yeats poems reveal different views of the same theme, each being influenced by the historical context in which he or she created. Both explore death from the point of view of mans contention with biological constraints. Howev er, the poets reach different conclusions Dickinson takes sanctuary in the idea of salvation while Yeats advocates for mans artistic powers.