By Sabian Cuevas

Emily Dickinson frequently wrote about the theme of death in poems such as "1129." Poem "1129" handles the theme of death in a way that I believe showcases how differently Emily Dickinson viewed life from others. John Keats also wrote a poem titled "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" which provides his views about death. I'll be analyzing both "1129" by Emily Dickinson and "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" by John Keats in order to compare and contrast how the theme of death is handled in both poems.

I'll begin by analyzing "1129." The poem begins with a line that reads "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--" (Dickinson 489). This line does several significant things worth mentioning. First of all, it introduces the subject of death to the audience reading the poem. The "Truth" being referred to is the Truth about death, but Dickinson wrote that people must "tell it slant" which means that the truth must be slightly distorted (489). Skipping ahead to line's three and four, Dickinson wrote "Too bright for our infirm Delight / The Truth's superb surprise" (489). These two lines provide the reasoning for the decision to alter the "Truth" (Dickinson 489). The Truth about death had to be distorted because its "superb surprise" is deemed as being "too bright" for the average human being to accept (Dickinson 489). The "superb surprise" is that death is simply the end of life; there is nothing more to life after death (Dickinson 489). This truth about death will come as a surprise to many and to say that it is "too bright" means that it is too overwhelming for many people to learn and accept (Dickinson 489). Human "Delight," which I believe to be our overall happiness in life, is "infirm" meaning that it is weak (Dickinson 489). With these things in mind, Emily Dickinson is informing us that the truth about death will shock most people because of the religious indoctrination that they were subjected to as children and it will end with their happiness being damaged. Various religions teach ideas that death is part of the process of moving into an afterlife, reincarnation, or other spiritual beliefs whereas Emily Dickinson views death as the end. Following the first line of the poem, the second line reads "Success in Circuit lies" (Dickinson 489). This line ends with the word "lies" which means that the "success" of "Circuit" is a lie (Dickinson 489). "Circuit" is referring to the ongoing cycle of life which involves birth and death (Dickinson 489). Emily Dickinson is claiming that the success of human beings is only possible because of how they are lied to by not being told the truth about death. Moving onto the second half of the poem, Dickinson wrote "As lightning to the Children eased / with explanation kind" (489). These two lines reinforce the idea that people are being taught the concept of death with an "explanation" that is "kind" as to not traumatize or scare the children (Dickinson 489). These two lines also tie into some of the clever significance contained within the first line of the poem. "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--" is loaded with consonance as seen by the repetition of the consonant sounds made by the letters "T" and "L" (Dickinson 489). The use of consonance here makes the sentence sound playful and childish as though it were from a child's nursery rhyme which further supports my belief that Emily Dickinson is criticizing the way religious indoctrination of children teaches a slanted truth about death. Knowing that most people were raised with this slanted truth about death, Dickinson ends the poem by saying "The Truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind" (489). With this line, Emily Dickinson is giving a warning that the truth about death must be "gradually" realized by humans otherwise they'll all be blinded by the truth. Death is the end of life with nothing to look forward to, and it's because of this that people seek ways to sugarcoat the idea and make death a little more satisfying in the eyes of all living people. If Emily Dickinson's truth about death is forcefully revealed to someone who was taught a slanted version of death, it could potentially invalidate everything they thought they knew, flip their world upside-down, and send them into an existential crisis that they are emotionally unprepared for. These people weren't the only ones who were emotionally unprepared for death as John Keats was in a similar position.

The first line of "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" by John Keats is the same as the title. By fearing when he "may cease to be" he clearly means that he's scared of the thought of dying (Keats 407). The next two lines are "Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain, / Before high piled books, in charactry" (Keats 407). What Keats means by this is that he has plenty of thoughts flooding his brain and he feels as though he might die before he can successfully record all of his ideas onto paper. Keats feels as though he has enough ideas to fill several long books with but he's aware that he can die at any moment. Keats also writes "When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face, / Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance" (407). These lines mean that Keats looks up to the sky at night and lets his mind wander. One of the thoughts that frequent his mind are romance. The next two lines continue this specific thought about romance: "And think that I may never live to trace / Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance" (Keats 407). He fears that he won't be able to turn his imagination about romance into a reality because of the spontaneous nature of death. Skipping ahead a few lines, Keats wrote "That I shall never look upon thee more, / Never have relish in the fairy power / of unreflecting love" (407). This dread of his comes from the fact that his death means he can no longer spend time with the person he loves. He's also acknowledging the idea that he and the woman he loves are completely different because his lover is "unreflecting" meaning that she doesn't reflect on worrisome events such as death as much as he does (407). He's somewhat jealous as seen by how he said he will "never have relish in the fairy power" of said lack of reflection (407). To not reflect on something like death is like a "fairy power" to him because he believes it's impossible for him to live that way since it's almost like a mystical power in his eyes. Keats ends the poem by writing "Of the wide world I stand alone, and think / Till love and fame to nothingness do sink" (407). This is his way of saying he's pondered the subject long enough to learn something. He's learned that there's no one around him that thinks like he does and has lost faith in the ideas of fame and love. He's accepted that he will die, and because of this he has lost the desire to pursue love interests or write his way into fame. Death is an uncontrollable force that creates so much uncertainty about one's lifespan to the point where Keats feels it's pointless to have dreams and aspirations because he can't know for sure if he can achieve everything he wants to.

The theme of death is present in both "1129" by Emily Dickinson and "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" by John Keats. Emily Dickinson portrays death in her poem as nothing more than the end of one's time on Earth and she criticizes the universal acceptance of distorted truths about death. John Keats on the other hand portrays death as an inevitable, unpredictable deadline that will deprive everyone of their hopes and dreams and because of this there is no point in dreaming. Their poems handle the theme of death in different ways and come to equally dissatisfying conclusions.

Dickinson, Emily. "1129." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. D, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 489

Keats, John. "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. D, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 407