Walt Whitman And Dickinson s Views Of Death - 1907 Words

When so much of one’s life is left up to chance, it is nice to know that one can find certainty in death. Whereas life can be moulded to perfection and death is a guarantee, there is no way to tell what one will face following death. There are millions of different cultures, religions, and individual beliefs pertaining to the afterlife, but a definitive answer will never be known. The works of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson express two very unique interpretations of death and what follows. Both Whitman’s and Dickinson’s views of death include an idea of an afterlife, or of a continuation of the soul post death, but where Whitman welcomes the idea of demise without a trace of fear and his overall view of death is more mystical, Dickinson has a negative view of death and, at times, questions the possibility of an afterlife entirely. Both Whitman and Dickinson share a strong view that there is life after death. Whitman’s view of the afterlife focuses on how all the lives from the past helped to create those of the present. In Canto 6 from Song of Myself, Whitman introduces the theme of grass representing the dead and the impact the deceased still have on the world: And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves. (110) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [The dead] are alive and well somewhere, The smallest sprout shows there is really no death, (125-126) This passage shows how life can grow from death. While corpses are buriedShow MoreRelatedEmily Dickinson And Walt Whitman1719 Words   |  7 Pagesfind a way to insert themselves and their emotions into words that move the readers in some way. One of the most popular periods of writing would be the romanticism era. Some of the most well known authors in this time period were Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. The reason they are so popular from the Romanticism period is because they also incorporated their transcendental ideas into their work. Romanticism has been described as a Protestantism in the arts and letters, an ideological shift onRead MoreDeath Is Death And The Idea Of Death1290 Words   |  6 Pagesinterpret what you are reading. One such theme is death and the idea of death. Death has always been in the collective conscious of Americans because, it is, well, inevitable. It is most certainly coming for each and every one and is inescapable. A common phrase in today’s culture is â€Å"only two things are certain in this world; death and taxes.† Death has always stirred mysticism and aversion, maybe even fear in the hearts of women, men and children alike. Death, in the past, has come sooner to many due toRead MoreTranscendentalism, A Powerful Intellectual And Philosophical Movement1781 Words   |  8 Pagesintellectuals such as Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson have adopted Emerson’s views on individuality and have expressed these ideals through their work. The spirit of individuality and self-reliance, key principles of Transcendentalism, are noted in Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman’s poem â€Å"Song of Myself† and Emily Dickinson’s poem â€Å"Nature (790).† Through their literary work, Douglass, Whitman, and Dickinson share commonalities and differingRead MoreWhitm War Changes A Society1287 Words   |  6 PagesWhitman: War Changes a Society Walt Whitman, a great American poet to be compared to Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe, exists at the heart of American culture. Whitman’s work has not lost its appeal because it still applies to America in the new millennia; America is still deeply troubled by issues of division, hypocrisy, and racism—much unlike the America of inclusion and forbearance Whitman envisioned for American in Leaves of Grass. Although Leaves of Grass is often considered Whitman’s mostRead MoreThe Value Of Literature Courses1428 Words   |  6 Pagesself, the supernatural, and death. The authors used their perceptions of their surroundings to write about these things but were going through very different experiences. American romanticism would have literary works that describe the landscape of the new frontier, while the British Romantics would stray from the urban growth from industrialism. Compare and contrast Walt Whitman s writing style with Emily Dickinson s writing style. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman both describe similar subjectsRead MoreHow Fa Has the Use of English Language Enriched or Disrupted Life and Culture in Mauritius15928 Words   |  64 Pageshere. Share this: †¢ Twitter †¢ Facebook †¢ Like this: Like Loading... [pic] 26 Comments on â€Å"CLOSE READINGS† 1. [pic]John Cooper says: July 13, 2011 at 3:36 pm Emily Dickenson’s poem â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death† details the events the narrator experiences after dying. In the poem, the narrator is driven around in a horse-drawn carriage to several places, including a schoolyard, a field of wheat, and a house sunken in the ground. However, a deeper readingRead MoreWalt Whitman s Life And Accomplishments1731 Words   |  7 PagesAgnes Nikuze Mr. Taylor Walt Whitman December 3 2014 Walt Whitman Walt Whitman is an inspiration to many, one can not really understand America with out him. Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819. He had nine siblings including him, he was also the son of Walter Whitman who was a house builder and Louisa van veils or was his mother. They lived in Brooklyn and Long Island in the 1820s and the 1830s. When Whitman turned twelve years oldRead MoreEmily Dickinsons Because I Could Not Stop For Death1249 Words   |  5 PagesDickinsons most famous work, Because I Could Not Stop for Death is generally considered to be one of the great masterpieces of American poetry (GALE). Dickinson experienced an emotional crisis of an undetermined nature in the early 1860s. Her traumatized state of mind is believed to have inspired her writing. In this particular poem, â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death,† the deceased narrator of the poem reminisces about that material day when Death came seeking for her. In stanza one of the poem, theRead MoreEdgar Allan Poe / Emily Dickinson3782 Words   |  16 Pagespaper will be Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe. Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century. The romantic period saw an overflowing of emotions, with â€Å"lyrical ballads† maintaining that all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling. The romantic period in American literature, which included writers like Washington Irving, Emerson, Thoreau, Emily Dickson, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathanial Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Herman MelvilleRead MoreAmerican Renaissance (Literature)1541 Words   |  7 PagesHISTORIC POINT OF VIEW: 1830-1880 In the nineteenth century, America was seen as the land of promise, the land of future. Travellers, like Alexis de Tocqueville, arrived to find the most unequivocal proofs of prosperity and rapid progress in agriculture, commerce, and great public works. (Democracy in America, 1835) They saw a nation in full enjoyment of prolonged prosperity. The nation territory now comprised thirty-one states, with a population of approximately twenty-three million people