Differences and Similarities of Two Poems
Have you ever lost close relatives or friends by death? What did you feel when you lost them? Did you ask where death took them? Emily Dickinson, a famous American poet, answers these questions in her two poems called “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain.” Dickinson uses various techniques such as simile, metaphor, anaphora to express the shared theme of Death and the tone of the poems.
Both poems are about immortality, but the themes are different. In “Because I could not,” the narrator has already died, whereas in “I felt” what is described is a feeling in the writer’s mind or brain. For example, in “Because I could not” Emily writes, “The Roof was scarcely visible- …show more content…
This shows that the narrator has lived in the ground for many centuries. In other words, Dickinson is saying that the speaker has been dead for many years. In contrast, in the “I felt” poem, she states, “A Service, like a Drum -Kept beating - beating - till I thought my mind was going numb–” (line 8). She is communicating as the funeral service keeps going, the narrator’s brain is shutting down. Strictly speaking, she is having a sort of a mental illness event inside her brain.
It is not only the differences between actually being dead or being ill that can be found in these poems, but there is also the use of different kinds of figurative language. The “I felt” poem is symbolic, and Dickinson uses a simile that needs to be read many times very carefully in order to understand it deeply. On the contrary, “Because I could not” is easy to understand and is not …show more content…
For instance, in the “Because I could not” Dickinson writes, “We passed the school… / We passed the fields… / We passed the setting sun” (lines 9-11). There are repetitions of two words— “We passed”— three times. This technique is called anaphora. Anaphora creates an outstanding effect of emphasizing important words by repeating them.
Likewise, Dickinson uses anaphora again in “I felt,” She repeats the words
“treading” (line 3) and again she repeats “beating” (line 7). Note that Dickinson uses anaphora in both poems The last similarity is the ending. In the “Because I could not” poem, Dickinson writes, “…the Horses’ head / were toward Eternity-” (lines 23-24). Similarly, in “I felt,” she ends up writing, “And hit a world, at every plunge, / And finished knowing then-then-” (lines 15-16). In both poems she winds up in Eternity.
Dickinson has done a good job of using different kinds of writing tools in both poems. She is also able to choose very similar topics, but presents them in different ways. One is very calm and kind, while the other one is sort of illness frightened. All in all, she does an excellent job expressing her ideas by using different and similar ways of
Have you ever lost close relatives or friends by death? What did you feel when you lost them? Did you ask where death took them? Emily Dickinson, a famous American poet, answers these questions in her two poems called “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain.” Dickinson uses various techniques such as simile, metaphor, anaphora to express the shared theme of Death and the tone of the poems.
Both poems are about immortality, but the themes are different. In “Because I could not,” the narrator has already died, whereas in “I felt” what is described is a feeling in the writer’s mind or brain. For example, in “Because I could not” Emily writes, “The Roof was scarcely visible- …show more content…
This shows that the narrator has lived in the ground for many centuries. In other words, Dickinson is saying that the speaker has been dead for many years. In contrast, in the “I felt” poem, she states, “A Service, like a Drum -Kept beating - beating - till I thought my mind was going numb–” (line 8). She is communicating as the funeral service keeps going, the narrator’s brain is shutting down. Strictly speaking, she is having a sort of a mental illness event inside her brain.
It is not only the differences between actually being dead or being ill that can be found in these poems, but there is also the use of different kinds of figurative language. The “I felt” poem is symbolic, and Dickinson uses a simile that needs to be read many times very carefully in order to understand it deeply. On the contrary, “Because I could not” is easy to understand and is not …show more content…
For instance, in the “Because I could not” Dickinson writes, “We passed the school… / We passed the fields… / We passed the setting sun” (lines 9-11). There are repetitions of two words— “We passed”— three times. This technique is called anaphora. Anaphora creates an outstanding effect of emphasizing important words by repeating them.
Likewise, Dickinson uses anaphora again in “I felt,” She repeats the words
“treading” (line 3) and again she repeats “beating” (line 7). Note that Dickinson uses anaphora in both poems The last similarity is the ending. In the “Because I could not” poem, Dickinson writes, “…the Horses’ head / were toward Eternity-” (lines 23-24). Similarly, in “I felt,” she ends up writing, “And hit a world, at every plunge, / And finished knowing then-then-” (lines 15-16). In both poems she winds up in Eternity.
Dickinson has done a good job of using different kinds of writing tools in both poems. She is also able to choose very similar topics, but presents them in different ways. One is very calm and kind, while the other one is sort of illness frightened. All in all, she does an excellent job expressing her ideas by using different and similar ways of