Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are recognized as two of the most influential poets of the nineteenth century. Walt Whitman wrote many long and complex poems, while Emily Dickinson wrote many short and simple poems. However, both of them are very similar in their main themes of the poems. Both poets have several poems that are centered around death and the human reaction to death, but they portray them differently. In Walt Whitman’s “As at Thy Portals Also Death”, “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, “To One Shortly to Die” and Emily Dickinson’s “I Heard a Fly Buzz Before I Died”, “The Loneliness One Dare Not Sound”, and “It was Not Death, for I stood up”, the main themes are death and the innate human fear of death. One poem by Walt Whitman that
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She explains that being alone is a very frightening and she is afraid that this might happen to her. Emily Dickinson writes, “The Loneliness whose worst alarm / Is lest itself should see— / And perish from before itself” (5-7). Dickinson is afraid that if she is alone, she will examine her soul and will be afraid of what she might find. She is also afraid that she will die alone with a guilty conscience or an unclean soul. This fear of dying is the main idea of “The Loneliness One Dare Not Sound”. Likewise, in Walt Whitman’s “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, he compares his soul to spider who is floating in an abyss trying to find something to attach to. Walt Whitman writes, “It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself; / Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.”(4-5) He is saying that his soul is reaching out constantly to find something or someone to fill the void in itself. He says that he is on a promontory to show how he is isolated or outcast from society and lives in solitude. He is afraid that if he never finds something to fill the void in his soul, he will die and be alone for eternity. Both Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are scared of being alone …show more content…
They were afraid that dying meant that they would be alone and even cease to exist. Over time, both Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson came to the same conclusion: death is not ceasing to exist, but rather a new life and a new beginning. This is important because people are instinctively frightened of dying. Whitman understands this and uses “A Noiseless Patient Spider” to tell people how to overcome their fear. Whitman says “Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold; / Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.” (9-10). He tells people who fear death, to catch their “gossamer thread” on something that gives them hope for a new life after death. Emily Dickinson reassures people in “It Was Not Death, for I stood up” that death is peaceful and not despair. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman’s poems about death and the fear of dying prepare people to go into death
She explains that being alone is a very frightening and she is afraid that this might happen to her. Emily Dickinson writes, “The Loneliness whose worst alarm / Is lest itself should see— / And perish from before itself” (5-7). Dickinson is afraid that if she is alone, she will examine her soul and will be afraid of what she might find. She is also afraid that she will die alone with a guilty conscience or an unclean soul. This fear of dying is the main idea of “The Loneliness One Dare Not Sound”. Likewise, in Walt Whitman’s “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, he compares his soul to spider who is floating in an abyss trying to find something to attach to. Walt Whitman writes, “It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself; / Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.”(4-5) He is saying that his soul is reaching out constantly to find something or someone to fill the void in itself. He says that he is on a promontory to show how he is isolated or outcast from society and lives in solitude. He is afraid that if he never finds something to fill the void in his soul, he will die and be alone for eternity. Both Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are scared of being alone …show more content…
They were afraid that dying meant that they would be alone and even cease to exist. Over time, both Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson came to the same conclusion: death is not ceasing to exist, but rather a new life and a new beginning. This is important because people are instinctively frightened of dying. Whitman understands this and uses “A Noiseless Patient Spider” to tell people how to overcome their fear. Whitman says “Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold; / Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.” (9-10). He tells people who fear death, to catch their “gossamer thread” on something that gives them hope for a new life after death. Emily Dickinson reassures people in “It Was Not Death, for I stood up” that death is peaceful and not despair. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman’s poems about death and the fear of dying prepare people to go into death