Comparative Essay on Death

When is it appropriate to die? is it actually at any point appropriate to die? if you could stop death and become Immortal wouldn't it be okay or would it be like cheating? Death is something that everyone will at some point encounter the poems 'Because I could not stop for Death' by Emily Dickinson and 'Death' by Rainer Maria Rilke play with our feelings concerning death they share the theme immortality by leading us trough the event making the Narrators immortal.

Rilke's poem Death emphasizes the theme immortality by use of positive connotation and Metaphors for death.

In the poem death is personified "before us great death stands" since death is not literary able to stand, furthermore it can also be a metaphor for the fact that we're all going to die someday. The poem then continues " Our fate held close within his hands" Death is portrayed as great and powerful, since he holds 'their' fate in his hands. You would probably have to posses some divine power to hold someone's faith in your hands. During the next three lines the context change, by portraying the 'us' as happy and with a feeling of immortality. therefore the theme of poem evolves , as the 'us' reaches a feeling of ecstasy hence their fate lies no more in the hands of death as they reach such divine power as they" lift life's red wine, to drink deep of the mystic shining cup" which also could be a reference to the last supper. Moving on to the fifth and last line death bows and weeps and is no longer portrayed as great and powerful. The 'us' has become immortal. Death is not portrayed as negative but nor is it portrayed positively, reading the poems you could get a feeling that the narrator is condemned with death as he does not describe death with any negative connotation and it does not seem as if they we're meant to become immortal but because they are not scared of death and in a state of complete happiness death cannot touch them.

Dickinson uses an anaphora to set a mood of progress things are moving and that way we learn about the narrators journey.
The first five stanzas are written in past tense and then the last one is written in present tense, because the first five stanzas are written in past tense we are intrigued by the narrators story and trough out the poem we want to know where and how it ends. In the first stanza the narrator meets death "because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me" the narrator was not able to decide when it was her time to go so death did. "The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality" here we see that she's alone with death and that she will probably be there forever. In the second stanza we come to find that she gives up everything for death's company furthermore in the third stanza we see the anaphors come as they pass many things on their ride to her final destination. "we passed the school...we passed the fields...we passed the setting sun" it gives us a feeling that the journey is long since they get to see so many things but still not in a hurry. Then in the fourth stanza we have a break in both rhythm and context it goes from a quiet and undisturbed ride to a chilly and a bit morbid context, as we furthermore can read about them passing by a "house that seemed a swelling of the ground" this could be interpreted as a graveyard as she also says there was a cornice in the ground which could be a cross, the house would then probably be a church. In the last stanza it changes from past tense to present tense and we learn that it's been centuries since she died as it s states "since then - 'tis centuries- and yet feels shorter than the day" but she still remembers it like it was yesterday.
The Two poems both play with idea of immortality by personifying death. the two poems both start out by introducing death as a person but none of them presents death as anything negative more like something that is going to happen someday anyway. Rilke's poem states "our fate held close within his hands" where Dickinson's says "because I could not stop for death" both of them can be interpreted as death is something that can come any day and you don't get to decide when. In the beginning of Rilke's poem and Dickinson's full poem death is portrayed as mighty and powerful, they also share the feeling of immortality in Rilke's poem the Narrator avoids death by becoming happy and in Dickinson's poem the narrator is immortalized by becoming some sort of a ghost or spirit, she does not literary become immortal but her spirit and conscious lives on.
Conclusion
in conclusion the two poems uses different methods and forms to leads us trough the narrators encounter with death. the two Narrators' encounters with death differentiates by one of them avoiding death and becoming literary immortal, where the other one goes to the 'other side' meaning she becomes a spirit after her death.