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  • Essay / Contemplating Mortality: The Poetic Visions of Dickinson and Tennyson

    Emily Dickinson's poems “Because I Couldn't Stop to Die” and “Song: Tears, Idle Tears” dramatize different attitudes toward mortality human. The theme of mortality is analyzed in the poem "Song: Tears, Idle Tears" by showing a fascination with the death of the poet's loved ones while the poem "Because I Couldn't Stop to Die" talks about the poet who experiences death herself. Literary devices such as personification, imagery, diction, and structure are used effectively to convey the different aspects of death. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original EssayIn the poem “Because I Couldn't Stop to Die,” Dickinson uses the structure of the poem to convey a strong theme of mortality. It is an allegory that addresses a dark subject in a light tone. The poem is written in six stanzas composed of quatrains that follow a hymn-like iambic tetrameter and this regular structure represents how death is an inevitable natural process. There is an arithmetic pattern in the poem, in which the syllable of each line alternates from 6 to 8, which establishes a rhythm in the poem giving the poem an optimistic tone. While “Song: Tears, Idle Tears” is a poem in blank verse which gives it a lamentable tone. The poem has four stanzas of five lines, each of which ends with “the days that are no more,” in the same way that life ends with death. The parallel ending represents the deaths as a continuous idea. Similar to Dickinson's poem, it also has a regular structure which shows that the poet accepts the morality of humans. The poet connects his ideas with alliteration and close rhymes that give the reader feelings of fulfillment and integrity towards the poem. Both poems are written in the first person, which is informative because the reader can look into Dickinson's mind in the midst of her death, while also learning about Tennyson's feelings about losing a loved one. The poems “Because I Couldn't Stop to Die” and “Song: Tears, Idle Tears” reflect on the passage of time throughout life. The first verse suggests that Dickinson was not yet completely ready to die. The poet uses personification to describe death as a friend who is both strange and inviting. The caesura emphasizes the word "stop", in keeping with the theme of morality depicted throughout the poem "The carriage held but just ourselves", the carriage symbolizes the passage towards death and is capitalized to show its importance. This shows how the poet views death as an essential part of life and presents it as something not to be afraid of. The caesura between the last two lines “And Immortality” shows how, even though mortality is with them in the carriage, it is always separate. The carriage personifies immortality because it is transport to the other world. This may also suggest that Dickinson herself is not approaching immortality, but rather her work is. The poem “Song: Tears, Idle Tears” implies that the poet's tears are useless because they will not bring back the past. The word "inactive" suggests that the tears are not caused by any immediate reason. “Depth of a certain divine despair” is an oxymoron since divine means God-like, but despair connotes sin. This shows the magnitude of discouragement. The poet remembers his past and tries to emphasize that he cannot relive his past. In “Arise in the Heart and Gather to the Eyes,” the direct imagery.