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Essay / Comparative Analysis of the Poems of Philip Larkin and Emily Dickinson
“Because I could not stop to die” is one of the well-known poems of Emily Dickinson and was composed around 1863. Dickinson , a prominent literary figure, often uses the theme of death in his poems and wrote this poem taking inspiration from a cemetery near his home. In the poem, a speaker recounts how she was visited by “Death,” personified as a “nice” gentleman, and taken for a ride in his carriage. This journey takes the speaker through the symbols of different stages of life, before stopping at what is most likely her own grave. Much of the poem's power comes from its refusal to provide easy or simplistic answers to life's greatest mystery – "what happens when people die" and the poem can be read as anticipation of a heavenly Christian afterlife. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The major themes of the poem are mortality, death, immortality, and the cyclical nature of life and death. Love and spirituality are the minor themes. The poem is divided into six quatrains. The rhyme scheme is ABCB, but the poet has taken liberties with this pattern and does not strictly observe the exact rhyme in this poem. The meter is much more consistent. The first and third lines are written in iambic tetrameter while the second and fourth in iambic trimeter. Emily Dickinson uses irony, personification, and metaphor to make the poem more intriguing. The symbols like carriage, children, fields, house and sunset can be seen in the poem. Philip Larkin's "Ambulances" is a dark poem composed in 1961 and published in his third major collection, The Whitsun Weddings in 1964. Larkin, a prominent poet of the 20th century, was always terrified of the idea of death and often uses the “fear of death” as an omnipresent theme in his poetry. “Ambulances” is one such poem that vividly depicts the fear of death while depicting realistic images of an ambulance. The poem describes what happens when a seriously ill person is taken to hospital by ambulance. People observe the ambulance as they go about their ordinary business, glancing at the person's white face (indicating illness) as they are placed in the ambulance on a stretcher. Witnessing this scene causes these observers to reflect on their own mortality, as they feel that the person just taken into the ambulance and many other "poor souls" will never make it out alive from the hospital. It ends on the note that even the power of love, life and family cannot ward off death and that all mortals are meant to die. “Because I Couldn't Stop to Die” by Emily Dickinson and “Ambulances” by Philip Larkin are two thought-provoking poems. which deals with the theme of the inevitability of death and the transience of life. If the authors use the same idea of death in their poems, the approaches chosen to define the central point remain different. While "Because I Couldn't Stop to Die" gives death a much more positive connotation by treating it in a strange and imaginative way, "Ambulances" highlights the terror and horror associated with death. dead. In “Because I Couldn't Stop to Die,” death is presented as a gentleman who kindly stops his car so that the speaker can get in. On the contrary, "Ambulances" presents the terrible images associated with death and also considers the ambulance as a reflection of,.