Death Literary Analysis Essay

Death has been a common topic for literature throughout history. There have been several plagues that have killed a massive amount of people. As organisms in general, we have come to accept the fact that we will all die in some way. Some people look at this subject positively, negatively, or neutrally. Most of the population in the world believe that there is some sort of afterlife in one way or another. Many arguments have been made to decide what is most likely, and people discussing their take on the matter. Emily Dickinson describes death as being very, very slow. Death is in no rush and is somewhat caring to a certain degree. John Donne chooses to make fun of death, and challenge the commonly accepted ideas. These poems attack this subject from completely different perspectives, but they’re are similar core ideas involved. Both poems suggest that death is a rather tame power or person.
Emily Dickinson’s, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, is certainly out of the ordinary. This poem does not describe the typical reaper that hunts people to end their lives. Emily Dickinson explains how Death stops to pick her up, and proceeds to take her on a ride in his horse-drawn carriage. Death is personified as an unintimidating gentleman coming to pick her up, and lead her to eternity. “He knew no haste”; “He kindly stopped for me”, “His Civility”. She explains that this all happens very slowly; he is in no rush, and he is civil about the process so she cooperates accordingly. As this ride continues, it becomes even slightly more pleasant as they pass the school. The sun then sets, and she is improperly dressed so she becomes chilled. The horse-carriage driven ride slowly descends into a darker period, and she discovers that she is ...

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...th. He took away his, “Mighty and dreadful”, reputation and said his job was nothing more than putting us to sleep, only for us to wake up shortly after that and be awake eternally. Both writers personified Death to be a real person which was an excellent idea in my opinion because it becomes very interesting to read, and very understandable. The personified traits of Death made the tone of John Donne’s piece pretty hilarious. For example, “Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men”, John just said that Death is a slave to everyone, and his power to take away life is special in no way because he must take everyone. On top of that insult, after he temporarily takes us, we wake up in heaven eternally. These two pieces have made me realize how important perspective and figurative language are to creating the proper tone of a poem or other form of writing.