A Comparison Between Section VI of Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and Dickinson’s “I Heard a Fly Buzz - When I Died”

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

initially puzzles the speaker, but after contemplating about it he comes up with that notion that grass could just be the graves of those who have passed away, "And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves" (12). Whitman's poem does not convey death as an ending but as a new beginning, "They are alive and well somewhere/ The smallest sprout shows there is really no death" (27-28). In contrast, Dickinson approaches the subject matter in an entirely different not viewing death and new life but as a final destination. Dickinson uses her tone from the very beginning in the first couple of lines to help convey this message, "The stillness in the Room/ Was like the stillness in the air" (2-3). Just by using the word still from the very beginning Dickinson shows that she believes there is no movement, no life, in death. She ends the poem with the same tone and attitude towards death as there was in the beginning with the line "I could not see to see" (20), versus Whitman ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE: