Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were two of the most influential American poets. Emily Dickinson is known for her prolific use of meter and rhyme, while Walt Whitman is recognized for his free verse style. Emily Dickinson started writing poetry in her teen years while Walt Whitman only became a poet when he was approaching forty years old. Emily Dickinson wrote fewer than 1,700 poems in her lifetime and only 10% of them were published during her lifetime.
Emily Dickinson often wrote about death and nature, while Walt Whitman most famously sang the praises of America. Emily Dickinson kept most of her poems safely tucked away in a desk drawer, though she did share some with friends and family. Walt Whitman self-published his collection Leaves of Grass, which was a compilation of his poetry. Emily Dickinson died at the young age of 55 from an unknown illness and Walt Whitman outlived Emily Dickinson by 12 years, dying when he was 72 years old from a stroke.
Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death”, and Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain! “. Emily Dickinson, a white woman from Amherst Massachusetts during the early 1800s, and Walt Whitman were both American poets who lived during this time. Emily wrote because she knew mortality was near her, and life is short. She wanted to make a point about death, and how it is not an enemy. Emily wanted the lesson in this poem to be that even when we have to go through mortality, we can all still have a bright future ahead of us.
Walt Whitman wrote “O Captain! My Captain! ” because he had just lost his brother in the civil war, and saw him as one of the best men that America had ever produced. He was shocked by what happened during the Civil War, with both sides having great leaders who were killed on battlefields. Walt wanted people to look at more than just their sadness of losing these great leaders and see what they did for our country and how they helped everyone else survive during times like these; he wanted them to feel proud instead of feeling sorry.
Emily Dickinson’s poem is much longer than Walt Whitman’s, Emily uses about ten lines for this idea while Walt Whitman only needs four. Emily also makes use of alliteration when she says “Because I could not stop for Death” when Death picks her up to take her away. Emily mellows out the mood with the phrase “He kindly stopped for me” which makes death seem like a kindhearted person at that moment (Death stops for Emily because he knows it would be rude or mean to leave her behind).
Emily then has many enjambments in her piece; she ends each line with its own meaning instead of showing how it ties to previous lines. She continues using this method throughout the whole poem by starting new lines with their own meaning. Emily Dickinson uses the words “soul” and “spirit” instead of people or human beings because she feels that they are more of an abstract idea of what humans are deep down inside.
Walt Whitman is not as harsh on death as Emily is, he wants his audience to know that even though Captain was killed it does not mean that everything else will be taken away from you too. Emily shows how death is awful because even though she has always been around, Emily’s life stops when Death comes to take her away without care for Emily’s feelings. Walt feels bad about losing someone who helped him through tough times, but gives himself some relief knowing that Captain served a purpose in America which helps him cope with the loss of his brother.
Emily’s piece is mainly about how she does not want to leave the earth because there are many things that she wants to do before death comes for her, while Walt talks more about how people can be soldiers or leaders just like Captain was even though he is gone now. Emily’s speaker feels upset about leaving all of these plans unfinished which means that she will never get to complete them after she dies, however Walt knows that although his brother may have died it does not mean the same thing will happen to him or anyone else who dies.
Emily uses almost no punctuation in this poem so everything seems very free-flowing and Emily wanted words to come out as they were thought of rather than being placed through a comma or period. Emily ends her poem with a semicolon, Emily continues by saying “And took my motley by the hand” Emily does this because she feels that death will take everyone’s motley away if they are not careful. Emily uses this word to mean all of the different aspects of someone’s personality rather than just their colorful outfits or clothes.
Emily Dickinson makes use of quiet tones in this piece instead of loud ones most likely because Emily wanted her words to be more powerful and meaningful when read over people who do not understand how much Emily was actually feeling at that time. Walt Whitman uses loud tones when he says “O Captain! My Captain! ” which is said in dismay after Walt hears about what has happened to Captain America Emily Dickinson makes use of metaphors in her piece when Emily compares Death to “a cutter” and Emily’s soul to a “journey.
Emily uses these metaphors to mean that she will be cut off from living once death takes her away and that the journey of life has ended for Emily. Emily Dickinson uses symbols in this poem because she says “Because I could not stop for Death” and Emily believed this meant stopping him from taking lives of anyone else around you. Emily also makes use of personification in her work by saying how Emily was able to feel sorry for herself while death seemed like an actual person who felt no emotions; even though we know he is only a concept his tone is still very human-like through Emily’s words.
Walt Whitman goes beyond simply feeling bad about death and focuses on the fact that even though someone may be gone it does not mean they are not still important to you. Walt uses symbolism when he says “O Captain! My Captain! ” because Emily is comparing something in the real world (a ship) to something that Emily believes is bigger than reality (the loss of a soul. ) Emily Dickinson makes use of repetition in this poem when Emily states how death feels like “Looming so close I could touch her” this shows Emily’s emotions of fear and worry about what is going to happen next.
Emily also makes use of imagery through many of Emily’s words such as: “air, earth, water,” these were used by Emily Dickinson to show how severe death be without describing too much detail Emily Dickinson also makes use of metaphor when Emily says “My ancestor who walked the road with kings” Emily does this to show Emily’s distinction between herself and Emily by knowing that Emily is different because she would never be able to walk down roads with kings.
Emily uses personification when she says, “We passed the setting sun-. ” Emily does this because death is not actually a living person so it does not pass anything like the sun but Emily knew if she said something like “we went past the setting sun” people might start thinking about how Emily died or why they are passing these things in general, so Emily decided on using personification instead of saying something deadpan.
