By Sabian Cuevas

Emily Dickinson wrote about the theme of death in her poem "1129" and John Keats also wrote a poem titled "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" which also handled the theme of death. By analyzing the two poems in order to compare and contrast how they both approached the theme of death, we can see that the fear of death is a social phenomenon that causes individuals to become aware of their own mortality and abruptly propel themselves onto a frantic path of action.

I'd like to begin by analyzing poem "1129" but I must first share a few details about Emily Dickinson's background. The biography about Emily Dickinson within volume D of The Norton Anthology World Literature states that Emily Dickinson was a "strange woman" who "never left her father's house--except once, it was rumored." (Dickinson 480). Dickinson had "published only ten poems during her lifetime" and "begged those closest to her to burn her papers after her death" (Dickinson 480). The biography also states how Dickinson's works can seem like "childlike and accessible meditations on such universal themes as death, faith..." but are also "philosophically demanding" (Dickinson 481). Dickinson was "conflicted and ambivalent about Christian orthodoxy even as a child," feeling as if she was "standing alone in rebellion," and ever since her early twenties she had "confined herself almost entirely to her family home" (Dickinson 481). After Dickinson's death, her sister found "almost two thousand poems stashed away in a box" all written by Emily Dickinson (Dickinson 481). I read through poem "1129" under the impression that she might be writing about death in this poem due to her unusual request to have those closest to her to burn her papers when she died. I also suspected that she might touch upon the subject of faith in poem "1129" due to how she questioned her religion ever since she was a child (Dickinson 481). With these things in mind, I'll share my analysis of poem "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. This first line is her writing from the perspective of a religious figure, most likely a Christian seeing as how she questioned Christian orthodoxy as a child, who has to teach his or her followers about death. She chose to take on this perspective as a means of criticizing the message that the religious figure is teaching. 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). By distorting it, Dickinson is implying that this religious figure is requesting that his or her disciples and followers should incorporate some form of afterlife into their teachings about death. 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). "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 teachings that they were unwillingly subjected to as children and it result in their happiness being damaged. Christianity teaches its followers that they will be sent to heaven after death, but Dickinson doubts Christianity and would therefore see death as nothing more than the end of life. 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 lines also tie into some of the clever significance that I had mentioned was 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 Christianity teaches children a slanted truth about death. I also believe it was written intentionally to sound like that of a nursery rhyme due to the biography mentioning how her poems can be seen as "childlike and accessible meditations on such universal themes" like death (Dickinson 481). 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 wouldn't be the only ones 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. In both of their poems, we can see that the fear of death causes people to adapt entire belief systems that make death seem less terrifying and desperately chase after their dreams before they die.

Dickinson, Emily. "1129." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. D, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 480-489

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