Comparison between Because I Could Not Stop For Death and Come Up From the Fields Father

Comparison between Because I Could Not Stop For Death and Come Up From the Fields Father

Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were two of the best poets in America,

during the nineteenth century. They were both rebellious each in his

own way. The shared some features, especially their abandonment of

the usual form of poetry and their use of free verse instead.

In comparing the poems “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by

Dickinson and “Come Up From the Fields Father” by Whitman, we can

notice some similarities. Both poems have some kind of music though

there is no rhyme scheme, due to the use of free verse.

They both use repetition of some words. Dickinson repeated the words

“we passed”. While Whitman repeated several words such as “waking”,

“longing”, “withdraw” and “better”.

They both used descriptive language. Dickinson described the “Dews”

that “drew quivering and chill”, her “gown” which was made of

“Gossamer”, her “Tippet” which was “only Tulle”. She also gave us a

description of the house of death, which was “A swelling of the

ground, The roof was scarcely visible, The Cornice in the ground”.

Yet Whitman used more descriptions in his poem. He described the

fields of Ohio’s villages in autumn and their beauty. He described the

“apples ripe”, the “grapes on the trellis’d vines”, “the sky so calm,

so transparent after the rain”. He made us feel as if we were smelling

the grapes, the buckwheat and touching them. He made us hear the

buzzing of the bees. He also made us experience the awe and misery of

the mother by describing her “trembling steps” when she went to read

the letter, her “sickly white face and dull in the head”. In addition

to her state after her son’s death, she was “presently drest in

black”, “her meals untouched”, “fitfully sleeping often waking” and

her “deep longing…to be with her dead son”.

Dickinson uses imaginative and somehow figurative language. She

personifies death as a gentleman who kindly takes her for a journey in

his carriage. She also personifies immortality as a person riding with

them in the carriage. She uses paradox “The Cornice in the ground”.

Whereas Whitman’s language is poetic and realistic.

Both poems discuss the view of death, but from different perspectives.

Dickinson gives us a joyous and happy view of death, which is like a

kind gentleman that takes her for a journey. He is so civil, therefore

she willingly gives him her “labor” and “leisure too”. She is not

afraid of death, she instead receives it calmly.

Whereas Whitman’s view is the contrary. For him death is a horrible