Death is a New Beginning Essay -- Literary Analysis, Emily Dickinson

Death is a New Beginning Death is like two paths on a trail. Some see it as the end of the road while others see it as a beginning of a new adventure. In the poems â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death† by Emily Dickinson and â€Å"Crossing the Bar† by Alfred Lord Tennyson, both authors choose to view death as a new journey rather than an ending. In the poem, â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death† the author portrays the expedition of death as a gentle carriage ride throughout the entire poem where â€Å"Death† is personified as a gentleman caller and Immortality acts as the speakers chaperone on this voyage. The carriage takes the speaker on a ride from her childhood to her grave and beyond. Similarly, in â€Å"Crossing the Bar† Tennyson describes death as a journey through picturing death as a ride out to sea. Through choice of image both authors portray their vision that death is a journey and that death should not be feared. Finally, though death is not to be f eared, both speakers regard it from very different points of view. The person speaking in Tennyson’s poem is still alive; he is an old man waiting to die. In contrast, Dickinson’s speaker is a young woman who is surprised by death. In short, death is for both seen as an exciting new adventure. The first instance where it is evident that the authors are of the opinion that death should not be feared but rather to embrace the expedition is proven by the ways in which both authors use diction. In the first poem â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death† the poem talks about the gentle ride that the person is experiencing. ...w he will be â€Å"putting out to sea†. In sum, each different speaker has their own respective point of view on dying such as Dickinson’s character did not know that death was going to come so soon. In contrary, Tennyson’s character was very aware that his time was on earth coming to an end. Although both authors have different points of view, both authors feel the same about death, as they both see death as a new expedition. In Conclusion, death is seen for both a new expedition. Dickinson’s voyage is going on a carriage ride with Death and Immortality guiding her to â€Å"eternity†. Tennyson’s adventure however is represented through crossing the sandbar into the large ocean. These poems are both reassuring and comforting for the readers to help themselves understand that death should not be feared but rather to think of death as a new beginning rather than an ending.