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Auer 1
Paul Auer
English
Final draft
10-30-00
Death is Good
Emily Dickinson is a writer well known for her poems on death. Her poems “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” and “Because I could not stop for Death” are two of her more famous poems. The persona’s attitude in both of these poems is very similar.
In the poem “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” the persona’s attitude toward death is peaceful. The peaceful attitude is evident in the first few lines, “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers-- / Untouched by Mourning-- / And untouched by Noon…”(553). This poem is about someone who has died and is in his tomb underground, which is untouchable by the sun. The word “safe” is used to describe the persona’s peaceful attitude toward death.
Another way the peaceful persona attitude is portrayed in “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” is with the persona’s look back on life. The lines, “Untouched by Morning / And untouched by Noon / Lie the meek members of the Resurrection…”(553). This is the person looking back on his life. The “Morning” symbolizes childhood, the “Noon” symbolizes growing up, and the “Resurrection” symbolizes the person’s death. Most people think when a human dies, they get to look back on all their happy times in life. The persona’s attitude here is one of happiness because he got to look back on all the happy times of his life.
Auer 2
In the poem “Because I could not stop for Death” the persona’s attitude is also peaceful. The peaceful attitude is evident in the first few lines, “Because I could not stop for Death / He kindly stopped for me / We slowly drove---He knew no haste…”(554). The words “kindly” and “slowly” are used to portray the persona’s peaceful attitude toward death.
Another way the peaceful persona attitude is portrayed in “Because I could not stop for Death” is with the persona’s look back on life. The lines, “We passed the School, where Children strove / at Recess—in the Ring-- / We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain / We passed the Setting Sun--…”(555). This is the person looking back on his life. The “School” symbolizes childhood, the “Grazing Grain” symbolizes growing up, and the “Setting Sun” symbolizes death. The persona’s attitude here is one of happiness because he got to look back on all the happy times of his life.
The persona’s attitude in both the poems “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” and “Because I could not stop for death” is peaceful and happy. In both poems the words “safe” and “kindly” are used to portray the persona’s peaceful attitude. Also, in both poems the persona looks back on the happy times in his life, which also portrays the persona’s happy attitude. In most poems the attitude toward death is negative, but the persona’s attitude in both of these Dickinson poems is one of peacefulness and happiness.
Bibliography
Auer 3
Work Cited
Dickinson, Emily. “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers.” Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan Day, and Robert Funk. 5th ed. Upper saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1999. 553
… “Because I could not stop for death.” Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan Day, and Robert Funk. 5th ed. Upper saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1999. 554-555
Word Count: 483
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