Three poems, which have been chosen for this paper: “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson, “A Supermarket in California” by Allen Ginsberg, and “Sailing to Byzantium” by W. B. Yeats, are all very different and belong to different literary trends. However, they all are focused on the subject of death, which they depict from different standpoints, systems of beliefs, and values.
In the first poem, “Because I could not stop for Death”, Emily Dickinson describes death using the image of a gentleman, who takes her into his carriage: “He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage” (Dickinson). Stopping the carriage means dying, which was not the speaker’s choice as the carriage was stopped for her but not by her. Despite of being about death, the poem does not seem very tragic, since the narrator feels apparently well travelling with the kind gentleman, passing by schools, fields, the setting sun, and only by the end she feels cold, because she was wearing just a tulle: “The Dews drew quivering and chill – For only Gossamer, my Gown – My Tippet – only Tulle –” (Dickinson). In the end of the poem the speaker sees her tomb, which is described as “a House that seemed - A Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground –“(Dickinson). Her tomb is metaphorically represented as a house, which may be also interpreted as her body without soul, since in the very end we learnt that she died centuries ago.
Dickinson capitalizes the word death, which is not done arbitrary, since she depicts it as a man, who stopped for her. This image allows producing the impression of inevitable and sudden nature of Death, which does not depend on our plans and desires and take us into his carriage unexpectedly, regardless of whether we are ready for it or not.
The next poem – “A Supermarket in California” – was written by Allen Ginsberg much later than the previous one. However, despite of its seemingly hilarious tone in the beginning: “Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!” (Ginsberg), at the end it also introduces the theme of death using the image of Charon from Greek mythology.
The speaker’s strolling with the book of Walt Whitman speaking to the latter, while entering a supermarket, which is overwhelmed by various people: wives, husbands, babies and ghost poets, whom the narrator sees everywhere: “and you, García Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?” (Ginsberg). In the beginning and in the end of the poem the speaker’s walking through night solitary streets illuminated by the full Moon, where he’s trying to find answers to the eternal questions.
It is obvious, that the image of the neon fruit supermarket full of happy families is opposed to the one of outside night ruled over by the lonely Moon. In this way, the narrator metaphorically contrasts Life and Death showing us light and noisiness of the first: “ I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans” (Ginsberg), and darkness and silence of the other: “The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we’ll both be lonely”(Ginsberg).
Another literary device used in the poem is personification of Walt Whitman’s book, which incarnates the poet himself, who becomes the narrator’s interlocutor. The author introduces the image of Walt Whitman everywhere: in the dark streets and in the neon supermarket. His presence is so evident, as if he was really walking with the speaker hand in hand.
It should be noted, that Walt Whitman, one the most important and innovative American poets, is considered to be the father of free verse, which was first practiced by him in his famous book “Leaves of Grass” (Price & Folsom). Ginsberg also uses Whitman’s free verse for his poem’s composition, in order to make his presence and his influence even more obvious.
Apart from this, the narrator sees Whitman in the supermarket making seemingly weird questions: “Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?” (Ginsberg).
It is interesting, that the second question is quite normal for a supermarket, whereas the others are definitely bizarre. It seems, that this is made to show the readers, how reality in the supermarket and Life itself are interwoven with the speaker’s visionary world and Death.
In the end of the poem Death appears in the image of Charon, whose duty in Greek mythology was to ferry dead men over the river Lethe which symbolizes oblivion (“Greek Mythology”).
The third poem “Sailing to Byzantium” written by W. B. Yeats is also focused on the theme of Death. The author first describes the beauty of life enumerating its endless living creatures: “birds in the trees —Those dying generations—at their song, / The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, /Fish, flesh, or fowl” (Yeats). However, already among these enumerations we feel the speaker’s sadness about the life, which is about to finish and the approaching death. The narrator describes himself as an old man saying that “That is no country for old men” and “An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick” (Yeats).
However, by the end the tone of the poem seems more hilarious, despite of the speaker appealing to consume his heart away (Yeats). At the end the predominating color of the poem is gold, which is also Byzantium’s color, one of the oldest and richest cities in ancient times. It should be noted that Byzantium was one of the most influential and highly developed cities in the times of the Roman Empire and was especially known for its arts and sciences development (“Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History - Byzantium (ca. 330–1453)”).
So the author introduces the image of Byzantium as an extended metaphor of the Art, whose form will be the new body of the speaker’s soul after death. The speaker asks the “sages standing in God’s holy fire” to “gather” him “Into the artifice of eternity” (Yeats).
Therefore, the end of the poem is more optimistic than its beginning, because the narrator promotes the idea of eternal life, which is possible in the form of art. He says that “Once out of nature I shall never take / My bodily form from any natural thing” (Yeats), because older the speaker becomes, closer he is to losing his bodily form. However, the image of the golden Byzantium brings the new meaning into human life, whose main purpose is to leave something valuable after it.
All three poems, which were analyzed above, are very different as for their styles, forms, and images. However, they all are focused on the theme of Death interpreting it through their systems of beliefs and values. The main common thing about all these poems is that Death is viewed as something, which does not depend on people. Both, Dickinson and Ginsburg personify Death depicting it as a gentleman or the ferryman Charon respectively, who takes dead people into his carriage or on his ferry to pass them to Immortality and Oblivion.
In all the poems Death is opposed to Life: the speaker in Dickinson’s poem sees schools and “fields of gazing grain” in her way (Dickinson), the narrator in Ginsburg’s free verse describes happy families shopping in the neon supermarket (Ginsburg), and Yeats’ character enumerates different living creatures which inhabit the Earth (Yeats).
Similarly, in all the poems the idea of soul immortality is promoted. Dickinson’s speaker was dead during centuries, but her soul is still alive and observes her body’s tomb. In Ginsberg’s poem Walt Whitman is alive in the speaker’s thoughts and thank to his poetic heritage, which he left after death. In the third poem by Yeats, the idea of soul immortality, which is achieved through the form of art, is very pronounced at the end.
All the authors use a lot of images and metaphors to transmit their ideas, including extended metaphors of supermarket, which incarnates Life and Byzantium representing Art. However, they are very different as for their forms and meters, which is not surprising, since all the poets lived in quite different times. This is also reflected in the way, how the authors promote their ideas and introduce their images: Dickinson’ poem seems more realistic whereas in Ginsburg’s work we feel the influence of modernism with its complicated interweaving of reality and visionary world. On the other hand, Yeats’ poem is very different from the two others, due to its rich imagery and plenty of literary devices used therein.
Works cited
“Charon,Styx,Lethe and gate”. Greek mythology. Web: 2015.
Dickinson, Emily. “Because I could not stop for Death – (479)”. Poetryfoundation. Web. 2016.
Ginsburg, Allen. “A Supermarket in California”. Poetryfoundation, Web. 2016.
“Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History - Byzantium (ca. 330–1453)”. THEMET. Web. 2016.
Price, Kenneth, M., Folsom, Ed. "Walt Whitman". The Walt Whitman archive. Web. n.d. 5 May 2016.
Yeats, William, Butler. “Sailing to Byzantium”. Poetryfoundation. Web. 2016.
