Write an essay (250-300 words) based on the following question:
If there exist some common motifs among Dickinson, Donne, and Marvell, they must be love and death. Obsessed with death, these poets use different ways to depict their relationship with the Grim Reaper. Besides death, love (be it religious or secular) is another recurrent theme of these three poets. Among the poems we discussed so far, pick one to analyze any of these themes. Or you can compare two or even three poets' different strategies (i.e. metaphysical conceits, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, etc.) to approach these themes. Explain why you think these strategies are ingenious and unconventional.
43 comments:
社會一41054b005白佳宜
I pick Emily Dickson’s poem “Because I could not stop for death”. Its content interests me because it expresses the unaware and helpless attitude toward the inevitable phenomenon -Death.
Throughout our life, we always live as hard as we can until we die. There are two kinds of life attitude: unaware and helpless. On the one hand, some people live busily without noticing the approach of the Death. For these people, the author uses “kindly” to suggest sarcastically that the Death is about to come without awareness. On the other hand, although some people notice the Death, they can’t help but accomplishing their plan in life, ignoring the coming of the Death. But when both of them take on the carriage of the Death, they feel the Death’s “Civility” because the “Horses’ heads were toward Eternity”. That is, the passenger on the carriage is going forward Eternity, accompanied by another passenger-Immortality.
In this poem, Emily Dickinson tells us that the Death is the stop which connects with the Eternity. Only being accompanied by Immortality, can we really arrive at Eternity. Finally we realize the meaning that the “Death kindly stop for me.” is the main theme that Emily Dickinson wants us to know that it’s not necessary to be afraid of Death.
The poem “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson is her - trying communicate from beyond the grave, describing her journey with Death and personifying it from life to afterlife. At the beginning of stanza one, “Emily” is too busy for Death (“Because I could not stop for Death—“), so Death—“kindly”—takes the time to do what she cannot, and stops for her.
This “civility” that Death exhibits in taking time out for her leads her to give up on those things that had made her so busy—“And I had put away/My labour and my leisure too”—so they can just enjoy this carriage ride (“We slowly drove – He knew no haste”).
Going to the third stanza we see reminders of the world, which Emily is passing from, with kids playing and fields of grain. Her place in the world shifts between this stanza and to the next; in the third stanza, “We passed the Setting Sun—,” but at the opening of the fourth stanza, Emily corrects this “Or rather – He passed Us” because here, she stopped being an active agent, and is only now a part of the landscape.
Reading this stanza and after realising her new place in the world, Emily’s death also becomes suddenly very physical, as “The Dews drew quivering and chill—,” here, she explains that her dress is only gossamer, and her “Tippet,” a kind of cape usually made out of fur, is “only Tulle.”
Straight after the moment Emily sees the coldness of her death, the carriage paused at her new “House.” The description of the house is - “A Swelling of the Ground” this, makes it clear that this is not a cottage, but instead a grave. Yet they only “paused” at this house, because although it is ostensibly her home, it is really only a resting place as she travels to eternity.
In the final stanza it shows a glimpse of this immortality, made most clear in the first two lines, where Emily says that although it has been centuries since she had died, it feels no longer than a day. It is not just any day that she compares it to, however, it is the very day of her death, when she saw “the Horses’ Heads” that were pulling her towards this eternity.
410402071 英美二 林子暄
There are two main themes in Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death.” ─death and love. Dickinson personified Death as a gentleman who drives a horse-drawn carriage to pick the speaker up for their date. By the imagination of dating with Death, Dickinson explored death with underlying theme of romantic love. In the first stanza, Death drove the carriage to pick the speaker up. The “carriage” here means the hearse and the “immortality” means that after death is the eternal life. In the second stanza, they drove very slowly along the way. “No haste” means they were as slow as the pace in funeral. In return for his civility, the speaker had put away her “labor and leisure” which were almost her life. In the third stanza, they passed the school. “The Ring”, “the Fields of Gazing Grain” and “the Setting Sun” represented her early life, middle age, and old age separately. It meant that they have been through her different steps of life. In the fourth stanza, the feeling of chilling made she felt that her dressing weren’t well-prepared for their date. It also meant that she was not ready for her death. In the next stanza, the speaker was about to die, so Death led her to her burial spot which was a swelling of the ground before a house. In the final stanza, ”Since then, these centuries and yet feels shorter than the day” signaled that the passage from life to death passing so fast. Then, the “Horses’ Heads” were toward eternity in her afterlife. In short, Dickinson used love to explore death and made death more acceptable for readers.
英美一 池有容 410502022
The poem ‘’ The Sun Rising’’ shows the speaker’s affection to his lover through what speaker says toward the sun. First, he describes the sun as an old, fool, unruly man for him disturbing their lovely time of sleeping. And the words he uses to call the sun become mean, ‘’saucy, pedantic wretch’’. Speaker urges it to bother the late school boys and sour apprentices, or tells the court huntsmen that the king will ride and the country ant to harvest offices. Namely, speaker wants it to go far away from them. Then, to the speaker, love is steadfast and timeless, overpowering than the time’s cruelness and irreversibility. Second, he brags that he can obscure the rays of the sun with a wink, but he won’t do it. On the one hand, he mocks sun is too weak, but on the other hand, he doesn’t want to lose his love’s sight for even one second. Third, he asks the sun where it puts the valuable spice and mine, or maybe they just lie next to him and gorgeous as his lover. In the third stanza, the way he depicts the girl is still exaggerated but also emphasizes again how he deep in love with her, who represents his whole world. Furthermore, the love between them makes the honors are futile, and all wealth is like alchemy. In the end, the lucky old sun can ease his burden of warming the world, because their room literally means the whole world! Except for the speaker’s lover and their strong love, anything else exists on the earth are worthless to the speaker. In short, the poem is built of hyperbole. He overstates almost everything to magnify the importance of his lover, and how fascinated she is to him.
英美二 410408025 陳彥宇
When It comes to writing styles of John Donne and Emily Dickinson, they both personify the Grim Reaper in their poems. Taking Emily’s “Because I could not stop for Death” and John’s “Death be not proud” for instance. In Emily’s work, we can see she portrays the Grim Reaper as a gentle suiter, who accompanies the protagonist to complete the three stages in her life, throughout the words “school”, “gazing grain”, and “setting sun”. Namely, from the beginning to death and to afterlife. We can presume the protagonist is ready to die. Also, in the fifth stanza, the word “house” suggests that she would enter the burial place, meaning that she is not alive. However, we are surprised to see that the main character still exists and her spirit remains for long. On the one hand, we can interpret Emily focuses on facing death is not terrifying. On the other hand, we admire the way how she builds the silent, peaceful, and harmonious relationships between Death and the protagonist. As for John Donne’s work, he cleverly accuses Death of his arrogance. Most of us may be horrified to face with death, however, John is the opposite. Same as Emily’s poem, Death is personified by John and he addresses that death is just a slave of fate, chance, kings, and desperate man. Moreover, in his viewpoint, death is really nobody for it is a long sleep. In this situation, it is nothing different from any sleep in daily lives. Also, we can observe he uses metaphor to make a comparison. Since John is a Christian, he doesn’t believe and even fight against with Death. We can see his triumph and throughout the poem, he claims that we should embrace the death and not be pessimistic because we are not actually died.
英美二 410402053 翁思涵
I pick John Donne’s poem ‘’Death, be not proud’’.I pick this poem because the auther’s attitude to face the death interest me so much. Most of us heard death always feel afraid and sorrowful, especially in the eastern society. We even avoid mentioning death in our daily life.
The author tell us we don’t need to afraid death, despite the fact that death could make us painful just like poison, war, and illness, but we just fall sleep short time, we’ll alive forever in other way. Death can’t kill us
In the first stanza , the author personify the death . Many people thought Death is a mighty and dreamful guy except the author
, because he considers the death can not kill everyone even can not snatch his life away
The second stanza .
Resting and sleeping are like imitations or paintings of death
And we derive a great deal of pleasure from resting and sleeping. Therefore,Death, must provide much greater pleasure than mere resting and sleeping,
And, besides, often it is the very best human beings who die young,
And all that death is is simply a chance for their bodies to rest and for their souls to be freed from sin and taken up into heaven.
The last stanza
Author regards the death as Chance, Kings and desperate man . death just like poison , war , sickness those who can make us sleep forever .
The author tell us , in the past, we slept short time, we will wake eternally , and our soul will always be.
英美一 410502016 李欣璉
I chose to analyze the theme in “Death, be not proud” by John Donne. In this poem, the main theme is definitely death. John Donne tried to trivialize death by comparing it with rest and sleep. He even went so far as to say that death would bring even more pleasure and deliver our souls. From my analysis, I think John Donne was bluffing it out, deep down he was really afraid of death. Death itself has never spoken in this poem, we can only read John Donne’s depiction of death. If death itself was truly a wonderful thing that brought salvation to the soul, why would John Donne be so hostile to it through the whole poem, addressing it with aggressiveness and derision? The answer might be that he himself was deeply troubled by death and there was the unquenchable fear in his heart. John Donne wrote that death is in company with poison, war and sickness and those things are exactly some of the things that human fear the most. It indirectly indicates that death will bring suffering. Though he then wrote that death will fade away and people who die will be living eternally, it doesn’t persuade people who don’t have a particular religion like he does. Perhaps he’s only writing this to reinforce his Christian faith instead of confronting death. In a way, he might be using this poem to show God his love and dedication to him. On the other hand, he set himself aside of death like death is someone who is going to attack suddenly. However, death is part of human, we are born with it. It appears that he was confronting death, but he might actually be confronting his own fear.
英美一 410502030 呂冠葦
Emily Dickinson is one of the numerous poets who use death as the subject of several of her poems. In the poem “Because I could not stop for Death” written by Emily Dickinson, we see death personified. Instead of being a person who is frightening, He is a courteous and gentle guide who comes to give the speaker a ride to eternity. The speaker feels no fear when Death picks her up in his carriage, she just sees it as an act of kindness. Maybe it is because the speaker is a ghost or spirit thinking back to the day of her death. She’s very calm. Maybe because she's been dead for so long so she's not so freaked out about death, or maybe because she is getting ready to die. She feels really comfortable to look back her life with Death. Dickinson’s poem makes me think that she is no stranger to the topic of death. She likes the dark side more. Dickinson begins death's journey with a slow, forward movement, which can be seen as she writes, "We slowly drove-He knew no haste." And then the poem seems to get faster and faster. In lines 17 and 18, it slows down. "We paused before a House that seemed / A Swelling of the Ground-." The reader is given a feeling of life slowly ending. Final stanza, time suddenly loses its meaning. Because time is gone, the speaker can still feel with relish that moment of realization, that death was not just death, but immortality. Emily Dickinson deals with death, time and eternity these kinds of heavy subjects in a simple way so that the readers can understand well what she wants to say in the poem.
英美一 410502028 方拓為
The first stanza of “The Good-Morrow” by John Donne is related to the first Corinthians from the Holy Bible. He compared his love in the past to his childhood. First Corinthians 13:11 says: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
His sensual love toward his lover is just like a dream. Sexually possessed, he was in mere fancy. Comparing himself as one of the Seven Sleepers, he woke up from the long-term sleeping and faced “the truth”.
In the second stanza, he found his spiritual lover, as if their souls are wide awoken. The love between them makes them fearless. There is no need to search further for adventure because his lover means the world to him. The love and trust in one another united into one big world, and they shared it selflessly.
The last stanza is where they see the reflection of themselves in their eyes. They can feel the pure heart within them. This love would never have quarrel, nor end. There is no better form than this love, and living things eventually die but the love.
If they keep commitment to it, they would have eternal love in the heaven.
This poem makes me want to fulfill my life with love. It perfectly demonstrated the joy of true love. From the core of soul to the way I express, love is one thing I can’t live without, no matter what form it takes.
I pick the poem “Because I could not stop for Death－” by Emily Dickinson. This poet used very different ways to depict the relationship with death and really made me impressed. The whole poem just like a journey of death. However, the author gave us a very comfortable and cozy image to start this journey. In the beginning, she used personification to personify Death as a gentleman. Besides, there was an immortality like Dickinson’s maidservant companying them in this trip. In the first and second stanza, we could know that the carriage which held them was a hearse. “He knew no haste” which meant that no matter how hard we try to avoid moving towards death, we still needed to face this unavoidable fact. And in there, we could see the author and Death fell in love because she put away her labor and leisure for Death’s civility. And we also could consider labor and leisure as the author’s all life fragments. Then in the third stanza, the school’s students, the fields of gazing grain and the setting sun represented the three stages of humankind－childhood, adult and elderly. After that is fourth stanza, it showed that she underdressed and felt very cold and chill. And finally, they arrived their “honeymoon Hotel”, but actually it was a tomb. And Dickinson was kidnapped at here for one hundred years long. However, the life after death passed very soon. It just liked that the horses’ heads would take them to the eternity. In my opinion, I think that Dickson’s differences between other poets are her feeling to death and the skill of describing. In this poem, she didn’t show any fears to approach death, she just described her feelings, as well as the imagination of the world after death, so this poem was unique than other poems for me.
410502046 英美一 沈靜汝
Death is a common theme in Emily Dickinson's poems. This song "because I could not stop for death" should be the most familiar one. The most special and different from other people in this poem is that Emily Dickinson is not to describe the feelings of sadness and pain about someone death, but to describe her feeling about death, is a state of lonely but eternal, and imagine the world after death. Dickinson wants to show us the theme of the poem: Death is actually a bridge toward immortality and eternity. In Stanzas 1-2, a woman was picked by death, but she felt no afraid and the usually frightening death is described as if a familiar friend, gentle and polite. In Stanza 3, accompanied by Death, she went through her progression of lifetime. Childhood-- innocent, happy; Maturity -- hardworking; and Old age -- descend to death. Then the stanza 4 is a shift, she was getting closer to death: “the Dews drew quivering and chill”——coldness of death; “gossamer gown, tulle tippet”——excuse for still alive. In stanza 5, they arrived at the destination—Grave. At last, she finally realized that she had been dead and also she had already got eternity. Emily Dickinson’s explain her view of death and immortality in her poem, which then lead me to a world of imagination and thinking. Maybe death is immortal. However, in fact, only you alive can you know the real meaning of the life. Emily Dickinson's body is depicted dying journey. She gladly surrender, the body will be considered as part of the natural energy of growth and decline. If we turn our sense of "death" of the expansion of some, is not limited to the demise of the body, all the time elapsed change is also a form of "death."
410502036 英美一 蔡欣庭
I choose the poem “The Flea”, written by John Donne.
I think this poem uses different ways to describe "love" and the comparison between the small flea and romantic relationship is huge. “The flea” seems to have nothing to do with love, but Donne turns even the least likely image into elaborate symbol of love and romance, using it to woo his beloved. The speaker tries to persuade his beloved to face his love, and it does not work. By sucking of the flea, their bloods integrate in the body of it, which indicates that the lovers are already have the sexual intercourse even though the woman keeps declining the sexual seduce. John Donne uses the conceit of a flea to serve as an extended metaphor for the relationship between them. Cunningly, the speaker says the flea dies and it is virtually no problem, and the woman must take his love because it is ok for them to get together. He tries to tell her that should not be afraid of the loss of the virtue. This poem is talking about love, but it is not just about “love”. It combines sex, sin, and the loss of maidenhead. This poem is different for me because the flea is not a common thing that poets use to describe love, and Donne uses it in an interesting way. Moreover, the metaphor is not difficult to understand, and the character of the flea is clear and is important for both the speaker and his beloved woman. The speaker claims it would be "sacrilege" to kill the flea. He holds the flea up in the second stanza as "our marriage bed" and "our marriage temple," begging for the lady to spare its innocent life. He argues that by killing the flea, she would be killing herself, himself, and the flea itself, "Three crimes in killing three". The lady, in the third stanza, kills the flea, presumably rejecting the speaker's advances. He claims that she sleeping with him is better than she kills this this flea.This poem shows Donne's opinion to his love. This poem becomes so classic due to its dramatic monologue and Donne’s writing skill, without ever referring to sex or love while at the same time leaving no doubt to let the readers to understand exactly what he means and makes it such a charming poem as well.
I chose [Because I could not stop for Death–] by Emily Dickinson as the subject of my essay.
Before starting in on her poem, we should take a glimpse at her background first. Emily Dickinson’s personal life had heavily affected her writing style. After she had left school, she barely leaves her family’s house. It is because at that time, unmarried daughters are expected to abolish their personal interest for the sake of fulfilling the needs of their home. As a result, by 1860s, she lived almost isolated from the outside world. I speculate that this is what brought about her world-weary nature. She was not able to pursue her career, nor was she doing well in terms of social.
From the beginning of the poem, the author describes that there was a “gentleman” closing in with a carriage, and stopped for her, as if she is waiting for him to pick her up. Who “gentleman” actually was is Death itself. Dickinson was trying to suggest that she was dating with Death. She capitalized Death in order to portrait “death” as a man. The line “He kindly stopped for me” implies that Death was literally a kind gentleman. This indicates that the author’s attitude towards death is accepting it calmly. The word “immortality” provides us a hint, which suggests that the author does not consider death as the end of life, rather as a start to the path of eternal life. From what I think, the way the author tried to depict her relationship with death is related to her personal experiences. The isolation with outside world had forced her to think death, as a way to be set free. Stanza 2 fortifies her love with Death, “And I had put away… My labor and my leisure too”, tells us that, the author had even set aside her work and free time in order to leave with death together. Overall, I think Dickinson’s life has a profound effect on this poem, in particular, the period when she was almost isolated from the outside world.
I pick John Donne’s poem “The canonization”. John Donne compared themselves with martyrdom because the sacrifices for love as the sacrifices martyrdom will do for religion. In the first stanza, the narrator wants to be left alone so that he can love! The narrator tells the one who opposed him to love that he can blame his “palsy”, “gout” and “gray hair”. Only the speaker wants is to love and nobody disturb him. And the speaker also mentions many things that the critic can do so that the critic can let him love, including going to school, getting a job, observing king’s honor and grace, earn money, and focus on things that can improve the critic mind. So from this stanza we can see the narrator longs for love and no one should stop him. And in the second stanza, the speaker claims that the love between him and his lover won’t have any effect on the world. The heat filling his veins has not added men to the list of those killed by the plague and soldiers still find wars and lawyers still find litigious men. Next the stanza, the speaker metaphors him and his lover as both fly and tapers. Their desire for love is as the same as the moth longs for fire; yet, they are tapers, too. Because they burn themselves as the candles do. Love can makes them revive from the ashes and die for it as the phoenix, it is why John Donne consider to love is to be a martyrdom.
410502050 英美一 林劭儒
It seems to me that death and love are part of our lives. I prefer Emily Dickinson’s writing style. Thus, I choose “Because I could not stop for death” as the subject of my essay. She always interposing her own long, rhythmic dashes designed to interrupt the meter and indicate short pauses. Emily Dickinson so thoroughly appropriates the form. To reader, death is something special through her writing style. Firstly, because author often explores her own feelings with painstaking and often painful honesty but never loses sight of their poetic application. Secondly, we don’t know if the speaker is recalling the memory of her death from Heaven, Hell. Finally, the speaker is ghost, which means Dickinson had to believe in some sort of life after death. To sum up, I think her view of death is related to she grew up in a Christian family. Similarly, the poem gives us romantic love. The speaker’s tone in the poem makes us believe the speaker does not fear death, but feels the opposite toward it. The process of exploring death should combination to love. Besides, her description of the grave as her house indicates how comfortable she feels about death. The overall theme of the poem seems to be that death is not to be feared since it is a natural part of endless cycle of nature. On the other hand, she tends to dwell on loneliness and death. According to final stanza, we can find out the speaker point toward “Eternity”; or, in other words, signaled the passage from life to death to an afterlife.
410432033 企管二 邱嘉敏
The poem My Life had stood— a Loaded Gun is quite interesting. A gun is often a metaphor for male, especially a male chauvinism man.However, Emily Dickinson used a gun to symbolize women.How weird! Every guns need their owner or they would be died.Everything looks harmonious, and sounds like they can’t live without each other. Actually, it is talking about a woman who never survive without her husband. Consequently, she was going to satirize the chaos of gender inequality. A woman is usually taught to be her husband’s supporter in their generation.No matter how promiscuous ,how violence he is, she must be tolerant. The poet also used “the Eider-Duck’s Deep Pillow” to represent others women surround to her husband. Women is portrayed to be petty by Emily Dickinson. She also still intelligent enough to let reader find some hints in this poem to make women to have their value. A gun is quite dangerous .It is to say that it also strong enough to protect itself. If the gun thought independent, it will not just the tool, and it also can live by itself. That is, if a woman thought independently , her life will not decide by her husband. Emily Dickinson write two kinds of love.One is women need to attach themselves to their owner and have no freedom. nother must be her ideal relationship.Women are their owner. They can find anyone they like ,and break up if they do not match both of two. That is freedom love!That is also true love!
410502012 英美一 陳姿蓉
I want to analyze “Because I could not stop for Death”, written by Emily Dickinson. The poem looks like a honeymoon trip, and the one who accompany the speaker is Death himself. Dickinson personified Death as a polite gentleman, kindly stopped to invite the speaker onto the carriage. They passed “the School”, “the Fields of Gazing Gain”, and “the Setting Sun”, which represent 3 stages through one’s whole life and finally came to their destination: the speaker’s grave. Unlike some of the poems that sing about death, there is no horrible or painful description in this poem. We see no sadness, fear but only clam and peace. The last paragraph is full of surprise, since the speaker has already dead centuries ago, her soul is still exist and is telling us her trip with death, the Immortality.
Death is usually describes as something horrible or evil in our society, and most of us are fear of death because the terrible story we’ve heard of it. Dickinson just gave us another version, another thought of Death: It is one of the stages that you have to go through in your mortal life, but there is nothing to terrify; you can finally put away your labor and leisure, and Death will lead you toward eternity. When people die, we always wish them can rest in peace (R.I.P.). In my opinion, Emily Dickinson just gives us a perfect image about “rest in peace” through this poem: No pain, no torture, no horrible views, you will always feel peaceful until the end of the world.
410502034英美一 蕭昀偉
Death is the end of life. Many people are afraid to face death. “Death, Be Not Proud” presents an argument against the power of death. Addressing Death as a person, the speaker warns Death avoid pride in his power. The poet criticizes Death as a slave to other forces: fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. He says that some people think you are so mighty and dreadful, but he doesn’t think so. The way he describes about death as if it is a person. He looks down on death, and he says that you cannot kill me to the poor death. He thinks death only makes people sleep or look like take a rest and the two things are all causing a lot of pleasure to us. Therefore, he understands the reason why only the good die young in our lives. He thinks death can cause a lot of pleasure instead of pain so many good men choose to die earlier. The following line, Donne judges death is the slave of fate, chance, king and desperate men and often dwells with poison, war, and sickness, but we can choose to use poppy or charms to get the same effect. Donne doesn’t think death can defeat everybody. He is a Christian, and he believes that when people die, their souls still live in the afterlife, so death has no power over a Christian soul. In the poem, a word “pictures” means images, the image of death looks like someone who is sleeping, and we can get more pleasure from sleep. Donne emphasized again, people do not truly die, they are only dead shortly, they awaken from dead into eternity, their souls will live eternity.
410502014 英美一趙思婷
"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", is one of Donne’s most famous and simplest poems and also probably his most direct statement of his ideal of spiritual love.Death seems do no harm in this poem,and the love are so powerful. The speaker explains that he is forced to spend time apart from his lover, but before he leaves, he tells her that their farewell should not be the occasion for mourning and sorrow. In the same way that virtuous men die mildly and without complaint, he says, so they should leave without “tear-floods” and “sigh-tempests,” for to publicly announce the feelings in such a way would profane their love. The speaker says that when the earth moves, it brings “harms and fears,” but when the spheres experience “trepidation,” though the impact is greater, it is also innocent. For me, recently my dog passed away, and this poem kind of gives me the faith to truly believe that death is not the end. After all, death is something that no one can escape. The attitude toward death and love can be related, in the poem, the husband wanted his wife have the faith of their love, and use many interesting thing to describe their unbreakable relationship. And I now have the courage to believe that all my lover can be safe, and death can't separate us. We should all have a positive attitude and great beliefs when we face this kind of situation. Believe in love, and do not fear death, cause nothing can truly separate us.
英美一 410502006 李宛容
I choose the poem “Because I could not stop for Death” by In Emily Dickinson. The poem” Because I could not stop for death” is describing a journey of death. In the beginning of the poem, Emily Dickinson wrote “Because I could not stop for Death-He kindly stopped for me-”. From these two sentences we can know that she personifies the Death as a gentleman who can stops and waits for her. She puts away all the earthly things and gets into the hearse that just carries Death, Immortality and her. They passed the school that represent the childhood, the fields of gazing grain that represent the middle age and the setting sun that represent the old age. The dead body is cold, but her gown is only gossamer, her tippet is only tulle; and this is not enough for her. Then the tomb appears in front of them. The tomb is not the place where they will live forever, the tomb is just a rest place in a journey, the tomb is just the end of the mortal life. The time past fast after death; although through many centuries, it feels shorter than the day. They continue moving towards eternity.
I will choose this poem because I like Emily Dickinson’s attitude to death. In this poem Emily Dickinson describes the world after death as an eternity. I love Emily Dickinson’s thought of death. Emily Dickinson’s thought of death doesn’t like the tradition thought, the tradition thought always describe death as a horrible thing, but in Emily Dickinson poem, death is an eternity.
410502002 英美一 林怡汶
I want to compare three poems which are written by Dickinson、Donne、and Marvell. The poem of these three poets all have include the issue of death, but the way they describe about death are different. First , I want to analysis “Because I could not stop for death,” which is written by Dickinson. The author personify death as a gentleman who want to pursue the author. And the narrator stay at home and wait for death to come. They walk across hole life and finally reach to the tomb. The tomb is not the end of the narrator but a way leads the author to the eternal. The second poem is Donne’s “Death, be not proud.” Donne also personify death as a person, but how he treats to death is totally different to Dickinson. Basically, the majority of the human being is afraid of death, but Donne is not. He said that death has no power over than him, the one who can kill people is not death. Death just the slaver of kings or desperate man. And the last one is Marvell’s “On a Drop of Dew.” Marvell said the christian won’t die since they just like a drop of dew: they can go back to the sky, which means they can go back to the heaven and threw into the hug of the God. They despise all being on the earth, since they are impure and mundane. In conclusion, the way that these three describe death is different, but there has a one thing in common. They don’t afraid of death, they believe that they can get the eternal life because of their strong faith of God. .
臺灣一 41050A015 陳美妤
I pick the poem ‘‘The Sun Rising’’ by John Donne. Donne's style is characterized by abrupt openings, and he uses an apostrophe here. I think it is interesting and impressive because no one would chide the sun. At line 1, the speaker talks to the sun with a haughty tone. He also personified the sun as an old fool who disturb his lover and him. At line 13, he said that ‘‘I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink, but that I would not lose her sight so long ’’. He exaggerates his ability and thinks that the sun is not very powerful. Also, it shows his deep love to his woman that he doesn’t want to remove his sight for a momentary moment. Then he said as if he has the whole world because he can get along with his lovers in his bedroom. He considers his woman very precious because she is so beautiful that can compare to ‘‘spice’’ and ‘‘mine’’ (line 17). It’s a metaphysical conceit. At line21, the speaker claims that his beloved is like every country in the world, and he is like every king. Princes simply play at having countries. Compared to what he has, all honor’s mimic and all wealth are alchemy. The approach he describes the girl is still hyperbolic. That is, the speaker's affection is so important to the whole universe that kings and princes simply imitate him, and the world is contained within their bedroom. At the end, he seems to forgive the sun because of his age, and accept the sun’s duty—to warm the world.
英美一 曾圓安
I choose the poem The Flea, written by John Donne. When I read this poem.I found it is witty and ingenious. The “flea” is a metaphor of love, and it is also a metaphysical conceit. In stanza one, the speaker persuade his lover to have a sex with him, but his lover denies and so the speaker, uses the flea, in whose body his blood mingles with his beloved’s, to show how innocuous such mingling can be—he reasons that if mingling in the flea is so innocuous, sexual mingling would be equally innocuous, for they are really the same thing. In the second stanza, John’s beloved is trying to kill the flea, and John says it is a “sacrilege” to do this because one flea contains three lives: his life, her life, and the flea’s own life. So he asks her to stay her hand and spares the lives. However, in the third stanza, “cruel and sudden”, his beloved still kills the flea, “purpled her nail in blood of innocence”, means that his beloved squash the flea. But here John did not feel upset and confused: on the contrary, he cleverly turns his argument on its head and claims that despite the sacred ideals he has just been invoking, killing the flea did not really impugn his beloved’s honor, namely, “sleeping with me is not a big deal”. This poem belong to the tradition of carpe diem and John Donne makes the unusual connection between a flea and sex between couples and without referring to sex words. John Donne uses a metaphysical conceit and the poem is so funny or special to people.
華文三 白昕平
I compare Emily Dickinson’s and John Donne by using their own poem “ Because I could not stop for Death”, “Death be not proud”. Both of them want to think out of the box of dead. People usually afraid of things that they don’t know, especially death, no one can tell where we going after dead. Dickinson talking about a journey with Death, and she jokingly said Death is kind, death is not the end of the life, but people have to walking by themselves loneliness after dead. She doesn’t afraid of dead, but telling the sad of being alone. Alone always make a person more sensitive, and that’s also a reason why people become apex of dead. Dickinson keeps her clam on death issue, and trying to placate people anxious. She tells that Death is the same as us. Donne’s attitude is much more stronger, he almost yell to Death that he is not afraid at all. He thinks that Death is the slave of “Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men”, these makes Death nothing. They both talk about how people die, but the different spot is, Dickinson is more likely to explain that people will die in the end; Donne is talking about all the possible that would make people die, so there is nothing to afraid, Death is not the one who control people, it has no power to do it. Though their attitude are totally different, but their thought are similar, Dickinson is kindly, Donne’s attitude is more intense, but they are both telling people don’t be afraid of dead.
英美四 410202074 賴祖兒
In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death,” she explores the theme of death, personalizing death to a gentle man who kindly waits for and has a date with her. The poet says that there are only she and death, and immortality left in the carriage, and they pass through school and fields, and she has only gossamer on. And it was like after centuries, she recalls that day, and figures it out that the goal of their journey is toward eternity. In the poem, the themes of life, death, and eternity are explored through. Death has transformed into a decent man who asks her out to a journey to look back her life. Though being busy, the lady has consented and gone with him. After a busy life, it is only when death has come can we recollect the past and reassess it. Death has made us look at lives in an eternal way. We see it from our childhood, middle age, and the sunset of life. In this perspective, death is a kind and considerate man for he let us see all these, which is not evil or scary. The poet presents the decency, friendliness, and kindness of death to us. For how to face life and death, Dickinson also conveys that although we couldn’t decide when to die, the only thing we can do is fulfill our lives as much as possible, and when it’s the time, death would kindly stop for us and invite us on a journey with him towards eternity.
John Donne - The Flea
In the poem, the main theme of it is love. The flea is not only a metaphor in the poem but also a metaphysical conceit. In the poem, the speaker gets excited, and possibly aroused, by the thought that the flea that just bit him is now sucking her blood, mixing the two together. The speaker then imagined that their blood is mingled together in the flea. The flea has been served as a connection between the speaker and his lover. Moreover, the speaker tried to persuade his lover to face his love but in vain. Nevertheless, the woman didn’t know the intention of the speaker and even kill the flea. Though she kills the poor, innocent flea, she thinks this disproves the earlier claim that killing the flea would kill them both. The fact that she hasn't suffered from the death of the flea in which their bloods were mixed means that "swapping fluids" isn't so dangerous to him as he thinks. In straightforward terms, his point is: "You have nothing to fear from having sex with me." The speaker used the word “sacrilege” to describe the action that the woman took. This poem is about love, but it is not merely about “love”. It is also about sex, sin, and the loss of maidenhead. The poem is unconventional for me because the flea is a kind of animal that used to be considered dirty and unlovely, it is not usual to use it to describe love. The metaphor in the poem is quite interesting and is surrounded by the flea.
410402039 英美二 陳雋哲
I pick the poem ‘‘The Sun Rising’’ which is written by John Donne. This poem has abrupt opening.at the beginning, he describe the sun in very negative narrative. The reason is slowly reveal to us in the later paragraph. The narrator is very unhappy because disturb he and his lover’s dream. We can clear see at the end of the line 20 “and thou shalt hear, all here in one bed day”, the narrator values love above all else.
Unlike other poems that praise love, the sun rising shows the narrator’s passion not by directly describing but by describing the narrator’s hatred towards anything that stands in the way between he and his lover. Even if it is a sun, a symbol that is almost never negative. This made the sun rising a very different and interesting love poem, a poem full of negativity, but at the same time, full of love. In “To His Coy Mistress”, the poet spend two third of the poem praising the young and beautiful body of the mistress, while in the sun rising, the lover wasn’t even detailed. To his coy mistress, the presents of time is very clear, while in the sun rising, time is frozen interestingly, both poems used the sun as a symbol, but in a very different way. In the sun rising, the sun is a symbol of movement, but in To his coy mistress , the sun is a symbol of stillness and in action . I prefer The sun rising because the love describe in The sun rising is more ideal.
410202079 黃柔羽 英美四
''Because I could not stop for death'' is the perfect example to describe Emily Dickinson’s commonly used themes. As we can tell by looking at the title, death is mentioned right from the beginning. This being said, it does not mean that the poem is only about death. In fact, the poem seems to describe an unusual feeling towards death. Instead of being afraid of death, the author shows the exact opposite feeling towards it.
Throughout the whole poem, Dickinson is describing a woman who has recently died, and has found herself riding in a carriage with death. As they strode by, Death gave the woman an aura of calmness, as if saying that she felt safe with Death around. She also mentioned that all of that feeling was due to Death’s “Civility”. She believes that Death is polite.
They rode through what seems to be like a depiction of her life. Seeming as a last glimpse of her now past life before she moves on into the afterlife. Soon after, they passed on towards a place that seemed oddly chilly. This means that the trip is coming to an end. The woman is in love with Death, up to the point that she finds herself wearing a wedding dress while modestly allowing Death to carry on with their trip.
They arrived at a place, which seems to resemble the place where she was buried, because of the way it is described. Upon reading the last stanza, we can assume that this woman has been dead for centuries now. We can also assume that she is in love with death, because of the way the author indirectly describes her feelings towards death. Even though she is already long gone into the afterlife, she still remembers her encounter with death as if it had just happened.
410502054 英美一 許美玲
I choose the poem wrote by Emily Dickinson “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is a poem on the theme of death. The speaker she wants to tell us that death is not to be feared. And death is natural part of the endless of her life. Her view of death reflects her personality and religious beliefs. And she was somewhat reclusive and introspective, tending to dwell on loneliness and death. On the other hand, as a Christian and a Bible reader, she was optimistic about her ultimate fate and appeared to see death as a friend.
The journey to the mausoleum begins in Stanza 1, when Death comes calling in a carriage in which Immortality is also a passenger. And as the trip continues in Stanza 2, the carriage trundles along at an easy, unhurried pace, perhaps suggesting that death has arrived in the form of a disease or debility that takes its time to kill. Then, the stanza 3, the author appears to review the stages of her life: childhood, maturity (the "ripe" "hence" "gazing" grain), and the descent into death (the setting sun)–as she passes to the other side. There, she experiences a chill because she is not warmly dressed. In fact, her garments are more appropriate for a wedding, representing a new beginning, than for a funeral, representing an end.
the speaker reveals calm acceptance of death. She presents the experience as being no more frightening than receiving a gentleman. And she description of the mausoleum as her “house” indicates how comfortable she feels about death. There, after centuries pass, so pleasant is her new life that time seems to stand still, feeling “shorter than a Day.”
英美四 410202075 李家欣
Death is an important theme of many poems, so are Emily Dickinson and John Donne’s poems. What makes these two poets’ works special is they use different attitude toward death. In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for death” and John Donne’s “Death, be not proud,” both of the poets personify death, but with contrast descriptions and perspective. Death in “Because I could not stop for death” is not a figure with terrifying or intimidating; instead, it is portrayed as a courteous gentleman. From the speaker’s point of view, she doesn’t know that she is experiencing the afterlife of her death, and it is like having a journey with a polite man whose name is Death to her. At the end, time means nothing to the speaker because now she is in “eternity.” Being died is like stuck at the same place and at same time. Different from “Because I could not stop for death,” “Death, be not proud” is like an argument against the power of death. In this poem, the speaker tells death that there’s no reason to be proud because death is actually the servant of other powers, for example, fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. Furthermore, the speaker even regard being died as a good thing since Christians can have eternal life after their deaths. These two poems have successfully reversed the perspective on death, and make death a polite figure and even a good thing to Christian.
英美四 410202075 李家欣
From ancient time to the present, death is always an important and famous theme of many poems, so are Emily Dickinson and John Donne’s poems. What makes these two poets’ works special is they use different attitude toward death. In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for death” and John Donne’s “Death, be not proud,” both of the poets personify death, but with contrast descriptions and perspective. Death in “Because I could not stop for death” is not a figure with terrifying or intimidating; instead, it is portrayed as a courteous gentleman. From the speaker’s point of view, she doesn’t know that she is experiencing the afterlife of her death, and it is like having a journey with a polite man whose name is Death to her. At the end, time means nothing to the speaker because now she is in “eternity.” Being died is like stuck at the same place and at same time. Different from “Because I could not stop for death,” “Death, be not proud” is like an argument against the power of death. In this poem, the speaker tells death that there’s no reason to be proud because death is actually the servant of other powers, for example, fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. Furthermore, the speaker even regard being died as a good thing since Christians can have eternal life after their deaths. These two poems have successfully reversed the perspective on death, and make death a polite figure and even a good thing to Christian.
410502026 英美一 李宜庭
For comparing the theme of death among the three poets: Emily Dickinson, John Donne, and Andrew Marvell, that I choose the poems “Because I could not stop for death,”"Death, be not proud,” and “On a drop of dew.” First, I want to analyze the poem “Because I could not stop for death,” the author uses personification to describe death is a gentleman suitor who drives a horse to take the narrator for eternity. They pass the school, the fields of gazing grain, and the setting sun. It means they go through a person’s life, from youth to old age. Then they pause before a house which is a tomb. And the last stanza becomes the present tense, which means the narrator is dead. I think the poem is good at that it describes the death is peaceful that easy to accept. Second, the poem “Death, be not proud”, the author also perceive death as a person, and he thinks death is not scary. Although most people think death is very scared, he thinks death has no power over a Christian soul. Death just like poison, war and sickness can make us sleep. I think it is cool to express that we should not afraid of death, that death just make us sleepy. Third, the poem “On a drop of dew,” the author describes the human soul is also like a dew-drop. The human soul also comes into this world from heaven, and still remembering its original abode. The author describes the soul so beautiful and has many images of dew. Every poets have their own thoughts about death, and each of them is interesting.
410502004 英美一 黃崇睿
I pick Emily Dickson’s”My Life had stood－a Loaded Gun－.” A loaded gun is common as a metaphor for the manly man, but from her point of view, she takes herself as a loaded gun, she wants to tell everyone her life isn’t vulnerable at all, she has the power and can be a dangerous thing. Her owner carries her into the Sovereign Woods, it means everyone’s value needs the other’s approve. When he hunt a deer, she got a right way to live, and the whole mountains give her reply, it means men needs a woman to assist, then his value can reveal. Emily mentioned Eider-Duck’s deep pillow, it has to share, although she is not comfortable than the pillow, she can bring the enough sense of safety to her owner definitely. To help him to prevail the foe, she even can be a tool to let the enemy destroy them. At the end, she talks about the live and death. Because she is a loaded gun, she is useful and willing to do anything for her owner. But she is an object after all. She also implies the objectification of woman in that times. The woman lost the ability to live alone, just have the deadly power, but can’t use the ability by themselves. The most sorrow thing is she even can’t choose whether she want to live or not. “For I have but the power to kill, without－the power to die－” A short sentence give us a long and wide sadness, and makes us think, her life will be good and tough, or just like the last sentence: don’t want to endure anymore, but can’t to the end, just to struggle on whilst at death’s door.
410502020 英美一 陳亮妤
I want to talk about the poem “The Flea” which is written by John Donne.
John Donne is a standard metaphysical poet who is good at using hyperbolic metaphors to make the poem interesting. I love this poem deeply after reading it. At first, I don’t know what the flea represents and feel confused. After reading again and again, I realize that the flea represents the loyal love between the couple. The flea inside contains their blood which means they have sexual experience. However, the woman keeps denying the fact and also refuses to admit their love. Man begs her not to kill the flea because it has three lives in its body and he thinks the flea is like their marriage bed or even the marriage temple. Also, he thinks it is a sacrilege if she really kills the flea. He tries to make woman feel guilty about killing it so he starts to say that he thinks that the flea is innocent because it doesn’t do any wrong thing to them. However, what he says doesn’t work. Woman still decides to kill the flea cruelly without any sympathy. And she breaks the connection between the man and her by herself. Maybe she is worried about being criticized or punished so she makes this tough decisions. But as for me, I think if I were her, I would insist to keep loving the man no matter what happened. We should be brave to love people who we like and not be influenced by others.
410502048 英美一 廖祐德
I choose the poem, “Death, be not proud” by John Donne.
Because the author’s attitude and words interest me very much, especially in the face of death as if a little kid does not understand the power, terror of death. John mentioned the theme that most of people dare not mention-death, and he didn’t fear of death even also made views on death. Despite the fact that death is very sorrowful and frightening. In the stanza one, the author was not like the most of people considered that the death was mighty and dreadful, he even thought that death could not kill him. Moreover, he thought resting and sleeping was like a symbol of death. Therefore, Death must provide more pleasure than resting and sleeping. In the last stanza, the author thought that death was like the slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men.
Moreover, death as poison, war, sickness, poppy and charms which make us sleep well. Finally, the author wanted to tell us that although we sleep short in the past time, we will wake eternally. The most important is that death shall be no more, death would be dead.
From this poem, I understand that the author’s meaning, we shouldn’t fear the death. We should make our life more colorful, live more meaningful.
I would like to choose The Good-Morrow by JOHN DONNE
If Chopin exude the melancholy mood by the melodies of his nocturnes, then Donne give us a totally contrary emotion in The Good-Morrow. Donne composed an aubade, the notes in the verses of his poem are so bright and pure, different from the blue tone of Chopin’s work. The first stanza signifies childhood and innocence. In the sleep, he sexually possessed his lover. However, all the pleasures were merely fancies. He wakes up to a new day and meets his true love, that is just exactly the same beauty he binged with in the dream of the fairytale-liked dream. In the second stanza, Donne and his lovers’ waking souls feel no fear, they watch each other and feel only the pure joy of being together. True love is so perfect and wholehearted that it can contain the whole universe. Through their love, they already possess the whole world in the bed. In the last stanza, facing each other, Donne sees the reflection of his own face, his lover can see hers own, too. They cannot be consummate without one half of their love. He deems that if their feelings for each other are the same or really similar, then their love is so healthy that it will never weaken or die. Their love is so balanced that not only the sensual pleasure but also the connection of their soul; their passion is not only the strong carnality, but also the abiding relationship.
410502048 英美一 廖祐德
I choose the poem, “Death, be not proud” by John Donne.
Because the author’s attitude and words interest me very much, especially in the face of death as if a little kid does not understand the power, terror of death. John mentioned the theme that most of people dare not mention-death, and he didn’t fear of death even also made views on death. Despite the fact that death is very sorrowful and frightening, he still criticized death bravely, his behavior is admirable.
In the stanza one, the author was not like the most of people considered that the death was mighty and dreadful, he even thought that death could not kill him. Moreover, he thought resting and sleeping was like a symbol of death. Therefore, Death must provide more pleasure than resting and sleeping. In the last stanza, the author thought that death was like the slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men. I completely agree this metaphor, It is naturally that no one could resist death, death made people desperate. Moreover, death as poison, war, sickness, poppy and charms which make us sleep well. Finally, the author wanted to tell us that although we sleep short in the past time, we will wake eternally. The most important is that death shall be no more, death would be dead. From this poem, I understand that the author’s meaning, although everyone will be dead in one day, we shouldn’t fear the death. We should make our life more colorful, live more meaningful.
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