Lewton Jones

 

Lewton Thomas Jones

19^th Century American Poetry

Graduate Paper

 

Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson wrote poems that explored the idea of death. Two poems that I will discuss by these two poets are “Because I could Not Stop for Death” by Dickinson and “Spirits of the Dead” by Poe. I will compare these two poems and hopefully give insights in how these two poets used language in poetic form to try and understand death. The poems will be examined line by line and commented upon.

Line one in the poem “Because I Could not Stop for Death” begins;

                  “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me.”

Poe’s poem “Spirits of the Dead” begins with;

                   “Thy soul shall find itself alone ‘Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone.”

 The first line in Dickinson is a statement that appears first person. Death is personified as a courteous being that treats her kindly even though she would not stop for it. The word “because” implies that she the speaker is in need of explaining why she could not stop for death. Poe’s first line implies second person being addressed --probably the reader. He writes that the soul shall find itself alone. The word soul implies a spiritual difference to the body. (Biblically) The soul is alone and has “deep thoughts of the grey tombstone” which assumes that the soul can contemplate its own grave and is alone.

The second lines of Dickinson’s poem continue;

                    “The carriage held but just our selves And Immortality.”

 She creates a view of a carriage which might be a coffin or at least a metaphor for some transfer to somewhere. She uses the word “held” which implies a secured state of being as well as “ourselves” which seems to mean all people. Dickinson separates death from immortality, however, and it appears to be a passenger. Poe’s second lines in “spirits of the Dead” feel lonelier than Dickinson’s;

                    “Not one, of all the crowd, to pry Into thine hour of secrecy.”

Poe suggests that the soul is not privy to any clues of death as it is in a crowd of other spirits who don’t have any knowledge of your  death ,which is a secret.

The third line (2^nd Stanza) in Dickinson’s poem continues;

“We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor and my leisure too,  For  his   civility.”

The carriage on this journey is in no hurry-- in fact there is no indication of no real urgency (“no haste”). We assume that death is the driver and is a civil one, -- as the voice in the poem relaxes from earthly duties such as work into more leisurely  things in life. Death is polite for Dickinson so far in the poem. Poe’s next lines - (2^nd stanza), seems to suggest a certain empathy from the other side as well;

                   “Be silent in that solitude, which is not loneliness.”

To be silent sounds like a suggestion to be patient or submissive to the soul’s inevitable journey. The difference between Poe and Dickinson is that Poe’s death so far is invisible and dreamlike whereas Dickinson’s seems to represent real objects and real people we are more likely to encounter in our waking reality. Poe suggests some ambiguous kindness in that the solitude presented is not lonely. The next lines explain why;

               “For then The Spirits of the dead, who stood In life before thee,

                are again In death around thee, and their will Shall overshadow thee; be still.”

 When Dickinson refers to others as ourselves, Poe in these lines sees the other participants in this realm as spirits who stood before him that could be people who are no longer living or other strangers. The uniting of the dead surrounds the lone soul in Poe’s lines with a will or power to put darkness around you (“overshadow) which tells you to be still. Even when Poe suggests a natural connection with other spirits, his images of death are more ominous than Dickinson’s so far in these two poems.

In stanza three Dickinson writes;

                “We passed the school, where children strove At recess, in the ring;

                 We passed the fields of grazing grain, We passed the setting sun.”

 Dickinson appears to be looking at scenes of her life, her childhood in regard to recess and being in a ring. The next line could be about fruition or maturity such as the harvest of fields of wheat or grain. The word “passing” suggests dying and is used in that way when someone dies. The sun setting is the end of the day or the end of the speaker’s life . In comparison, Poe’s first lines in the third stanza the poet say;

                  “The night, though clear, shall frown, And the stars shall not look down

                    From their high thrones in heaven.” 

Poe’s ‘place in time’ is dark like the night, and even though you can then imagine the night ‘frowning’ as if in an unfriendly look to the lonely soul. This soul has come into a void which has no stars unlike the night which was heavenly before death with stars shining down. Poe is describing death at this point of the poem as an unsure deliverance to a strange place, whereby Dickinson has no fear in her visions thus far.

The fourth stanza of Dickinson continues the poem’s direction;

                            Or rather he passed us; The dews grew quivering and chill,

                             For only gossamer my gown, My tippet only tulle.”

Dickinson now suggests a discomfort that is she is chilly because she is not warmly dressed. Her garments are more appropriate for a wedding which could mean a new beginning rather than a funeral or ending. She seems to welcome death as her new life. The ’he’ in her line could be a male suitor who controls the action in her passing or death in accordance with God. Poe using the word heaven suggests the same sentiment. Both poets have a sense of providence. Poe’s next lines from stanza four confer with this notion;

                     “With light like hope to mortals given”

He then darkens this providence with the next lines;

                    “ But their red orbs, without beam,

                      To thy weariness shall seem

                      As a burning and a fever Which would cling to thee for ever.”

 The red orbs (stars) could be the eyes of the dead /spirits around the soul which are now very tired (rather than chilled like Dickinson) rather hot like a burning (Hell?) “like a fever” which grabs onto the soul forever. Poe might be describing death or the consequences which wait for the soul after death. Poe’s death feels much more dramatic and solitary than Dickinson’s at this point in the two poems.

The fifth stanza of Dickinson’s poem on death says;

                  “We paused before a house that seemed A swelling of the ground;

                                     The roof was scarcely visible, The cornice but a mound.”

Dickinson seems comfortable with her death in these lines about where her new house or grave is to be.  She has personified death and cannot stop him. It appears to be a sort of house that is seen from a distance in relation to her unexpected death. She is unprepared and getting closer which is a little frightening. The roof could be the grave stone over the mound of earth. Dickinson however is much more stoic than Poe and less dramatic. She accepts her plot in the earth. Poe seems to be a wandering spirit in an unknown place.

The fifth stanza in Poe’s poem on death concludes;

                           “Now are thoughts though shalt not banish,

                            Now are visions ne’er to vanish; from thy spirit shall they pass No more,

                            like dew-drop from the grass.”

The word “now” is in present tense, implying that the place is present, as well. The thoughts of the soul continue forever as well as one’s visions-- which for Poe were not very forgiving considering his tortured life. The things which you bring from this life into the next are permanent for Poe.  Unlike Dickinson’s final death home, his version of death was one of no rest. Poe’s imagery, such as in the’ sparkle of dew on the grass’ (stars) is poetic, and its poetic ‘beauty’ could also follow the soul into the next world, although he continues with his ominous settings.

The last stanza in Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could not Stop for Death concludes with;

                       “Since then ‘tis centuries, and yet each Feels shorter than the day

                        I first surmised the horses’ heads Were toward eternity.”

Time stands still in Dickinson’s death as centuries pass and she sleeps away.  She also remembers the journey to death in the carriage with the horses’ heads as a projection to where her soul was going which was eternity. She seems to say that eternity is inevitable and defies explaining anymore in earthly terms anymore  than the narrative description of directions that a horse in this corporal life might take. When Dickinson uses the word “surmised” we assume that a material brain was postulated something. If Dickinson is already dead then the interior mind talking is really her soul which is really living in her poem and its words. It is possible that she wrote the poem in speculation it would be read after her death as a musing on where she will be. Her overall theme seems to be that death is not to be feared which is quite different than Poe’s. Dickinson sees death as a natural part of the endless cycle of nature. Her personality and religious beliefs may also reflect her intentions in the poem. Dickinson was a spinster-- reclusive and introspective --and tended to write about her isolation and death, but she was also a Bible reader and a Christian and that could explain her optimism about dying and seeing death as a friend.

 

The last stanza of Poe’s Poem “Spirits of the Dead” suggests a different view;

                               “The breeze, the breath of god, is still, And the mist upon the hill

                                Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken, Is a symbol and a token.

                                How it hangs upon the trees, A mystery of mysteries.”

 Once again we see Poe’s writing style as much more dramatic than narrative as Dickinson’s, as well as his vision of death. The description of the place of death for Poe is spooky and feels gothic but he refers to God having a breath which presumes a life force like the Holy Spirit which is Christian in context. Poe’s eternity is still—and, unlike Dickinson, he was concerned with ,though natural, yet somewhat uncomfortable visuals surrounding the actual grave, which embellishes the place where the dead are in waiting. The “token” could be a symbol for the living to witness. Poe’s is shadowy and with the repetition it underscores this gloomy place where trees stand above graves. Poe used words for effect more than meaning so it is the poem itself that holds the meaning.

The last line “A mysteries of mysteries” is different than Dickinson’s conclusion which states that she understands how time works and how she will feel in her resting place. Poe compares the hell and heaven in this life as counterpoints to what is to become and concludes that both are synonymous in meaning: “High thrones in the heaven’ and “red orbs, without beam. “ The rest is imagery for Poe, who unlike Dickinson, kept the poem independent of the didactic and the philosophic truth construct. He felt poems should be short and build to a high point and then end. Dickinson wrote her poems almost biographically. Death could be the ultimate drama for Poe in his poem while Dickinson might have just liked the word play using death as a gentleman coming to see her to take a ride in his carriage and possibly marry.

 Dickinson seems confessional in her view of death while Poe is entertaining the reader with his vision of it because for Poe only the spirits of the dead know the answers where as Dickinson seems convinced that she can see through the veil of life’s question via her academic intellectualism and poetic use of language. For Dickinson the contemplation regarding death in the poem “Because I could not Stop for Death” is an experience she is looking back on; “tis centuries”. Poe was pursuing death simply by his lifestyle. His poetry was a livelihood as well as an art form. Dickinson used poetry to imitate life and was free to write without it needing to provide her sole  financial source of survival. Poe was in the public eye and his internal thoughts needed to be at least entertaining. Dickinson had the interior privilege due to a secure life at Amherst to muse upon life at a distance and keep her sensitivity in a drawer. Death was a visitor for Emily but for Poe it was a continuation of his fight with God and the suffering and fear of loss. Emily suffered from the death of loved ones as well, but she was not in the trenches of everyday life in so much the way Poe was.

In conclusion, it is possible within these poems to get a glimpse of how people like Poe and Dickinson viewed death. In the two poems discussed, we can surmise that they both were poetically preoccupied with death personally and they expressed it so in their work. Death was a suitor in a carriage for Dickinson and for Poe it was a graveyard dark with spirits. In both poems death is present in the here and after. They are interior poems, describing death in an abstract way using nature and human made symbols as their metaphors.

  In a letter Dickinson wrote; “A single thread joins mighty to meek. Death, Exhilaration and the Perfidies of the Universe make companions of housewife and statesman. Thought and Soul-Companions share a solitary room. It’s a Window a mirror, its door defy the key no gate secure it’s garden except Eternity.” (August 1, On the Death of Abraham Lincoln) Bauldelaire said of Poe” It is this admirable, this immortal instinct of the beautiful which makes us consider the earth and its spectacles as a revelation as something in correspondence with heaven. The insatiable thirst for everything that lies beyond, and that life reveals is the most living proof of our immortality. It is at the same time by poetry and through poetry, by and through music that the soul glimpses the splendors of the tomb. Edgar Allen Poe was also absorbed by the idea of unity-a fond dream.” (Bauldelaire on Poe 1952 Pg 140-142))