美国文学史作文

Death is the Tender and Terrible
——Comments on Emily Dickinson’ s two poetry on death There is plenty of description and mediation about death. However, as far as I am concerned, the most vivid and meaningful one belongs to Emily Dickinson’s Because I Could Not Stop for Death and I Heard a Fly Buzz——When I Died.
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Because I Could Not Stop for Death——
He kindly stopped for me——
The Carriage held but just Ourselves——
And Immortality.
We slowly drove——He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too.
For His Civility——
We passed the School ,where Children strove
At Recess——in the ring——
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain——
We passed the Setting Sun——
Or rather——He passed Us——
The Dews drew quivering and chill——
For only Grossamer ,my Grown——
My Tippet——only Tulle——
We passed before a House that seemed
A swelling of the Ground——
The Roof was scarcely visible——
The Cornice——in the Ground——
Since then——‘tis centuries——and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity——
This is a poetry about death and immortality. At first, the author did n’t want to stop for death. Nevertheless, she was later moved by death’s kindness and politeness. He treated her so tender that she couldn’t refuse his invitation. She gave up her own life and decided to go with immortality by a carriage. On the way to the house(tomb), she recalled her childhood ,adulthood, and advanced years. She stayed in the tomb for several centuries ,and for the first time, she realized that the soul can be immortal.
As for the figure of speech of this poetry, her excellence in writing skills is beyond my expectation. There are two points I want to say. First of all, she uses the personification deftly. She compares the death to he, carriage to hearse, school to
childhood, fields to adulthood, setting sun to agedness. By doing so, she strengthens the effect of this poetry. Everything in this poetry is made more meaningful. To some degree, she changes the heavy topic about death to a more relaxed one. Maybe in his heart, she feels lucky to die. Because the death is so charming, and the process of dying is so relaxing. As soon as she dies, she gets freedom. She acquires the immortality. Her soul gets released. And the eternity is no longer a dream, it has come true. Secondly, She capitalizes many words that conventionally are lowercased. Dashes are more frequently used than in usual works. In this way, she makes the poetry more powerful. The rhythm is expressed more obviously. When readers read the poetry, they will feel a kind of strength. What’s more, these special methods also shows the author’s complexity and contradiction plight in her heart. At the beginning , the author is unsure about where she will go to after her dies. She struggles in her mind. Fortunately, she gets what she anticipates.
Emily is optimistic about the saying about the immortality. She even gives this poetry a feeling of romance and secrecy. This is partly due to her family ground. Her father is a Puritanism, and believes in Calvinism .She is influenced by her father deeply. There is a sense of Fatalism in her poetry. She longs for the positive religion belief, God’s help and beautiful life.
This is what I can get from this poetry. All in all, Emily holds a positive attitude towards immortality and death.
I Heard a Fly Buzz——When I Died
I heard a Fly buzz——when I died——
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the stillness in the Air——
Between the Heaves of Storm——
The Eyes around——had wrung them dry——
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset——when the King
Be witnessed——in the Room——
I willed my Keepsakes——Singed away
What portion of me be
Assignable——and then it was
There interposed a Fly——
With Blue——uncertain stumbling Buzz——
Between the light——and me——
And then the Windows failed——and then
I could not see to see——
This poetry is about the scene appeared before a person died. Emily imagined and described the process of death boldly. When I (the person in the poetry) died, there is a stillness in the room. People around me held their breath quietly, and watched me silently. I was dying. The only thing occurred to my mind was the
distribution of keepsakes to people. That happened when I was still sober. After that, I felt weaker and weaker. I could only hear a fly buzzing. It kept me from seeing the light outside the window. Finally, the whole world turned to be a black one. That was to say, I left the real word forever.
Similarly, the author uses many dashes and personification ,the function of which has been discussed in last poetry. In this poetry, the author compares King to death. In my opinion, at this time, the author’s feeling isn’t as relaxed as that in the last poetry. Besides this, blue and uncertain stumbling Buzz had the deeper meaning which is worthy of our attention. The word blue indicates that the dying person’s sight has blurred. And the hearing of the dying person has been weaker and weaker. The author combines the two faculties together, and merges them into a whole body, showing the dying person’s feelings vividly.
The belief which the author holds is pessimistic. She is skeptical of the immortality . We can find the traces in her expression of the light of window. We can consider this kind of light as the light of heaven. She could not feel the call from the heaven. The appearance of fly indicates that the dying person’s body has decayed. Just like that ,she/ he keeps waiting for the invitation of the God, but the results are depressing. By writing in this way, the author shows her own attitude towards immortality and the world after death. She does not believe the saying about the immortality after death.
This two poetry shows different attitude towards death and immortality. The author believes the death is tender in the former poetry, she is optimistic and hopeful. But she is pessimistic and disappointing in the latter one. She thinks the death is terrible, there is not immortality in the world at all. All of sudden, her world changes from a colorful one to a dull one.
I believe, whether there is immortality in the world, we should always appreciate the life. And value the things in our lives. We should have the serenity to accept the things we could not change, the courage to change the things that we can’t change , the wisdom to know the difference. Immortality can be obtained in our heart. And death is just a natural process which everyone must experience. We need not to fear that. On the contrary, the earlier we know the importance of accepting ,the better state of immortality we will get.。