“The Perspective of Death of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost” Part.1

What would be the most influential element which affected the view of death of the two great poets “Emily Dickinson” and “Robert Frost”? One thing is for sure that they had different mindsets for the universal subject. In other words, for Frost, the concept of the death was always related to his loved family. Likewise, for Dickenson, the fear for the uncertain future was linked to the religious ideology. In this paper, we scrutinize some poems written by them which show their inner complicated psychology on this matter. After that, the brief comparison between their writing styles is also being conducted.

Among many Frost’s master pieces, “Out, out--” and “Home Burial” clearly tell us about what kind of obsession on death he had. In addition, this two poems imply how he spent his life. Frost had to face with a lot of tragic events involving family members’ deaths throughout his whole life. First of all, he lost his both parents when he was still young. Moreover, his beloved young sister Jeanie had a severe mental illness which seems to run his family genes. He had to force her to hospitalize into a mental clinic, which must have definitely tormented him. However, the talented poet’s hardship was not limited to those. His children also were destined to get into various difficulties. Among six children, only two could outlive their parents and the rest died young because of either committing suicide or serious diseases. It is reasonable to assume that those harsh experiences affected his attitudes toward death and those verses he created.

The poem “Out, out--” is a short story about a boy, who cut his own hand by “the buzz saw” and died. It seems Frost tried to describe how pitiful a young man, who had a bright future, must die all of a sudden. The same mercy as the one given to his lost children can be seen in this work. Furthermore, it is quite interesting that Frost emphasized how indifferent other people are to the tragedy. This sad story ends with this line; “And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.” The reaction of the onlookers in this scene would be similar to the people’s behaviors towards the deaths of Frost's children. Hence, from this verse, we can also feel the strong “Out-cry” against the hypocrites, who pretend to worry about others but actually they do not care about a little bit.

“Home Burial” is a short novel which depicts parents who lost their child. In comparison with the previous one, this poem focuses more on the bereaved people, who are struggling with the unacceptable heavy fact. In addition, we can also sense that this story was based on the author’s own experience. Frost and his wife had to embrace the consecutive calamities, which stole their loved ones. It is not hard to imagine that the bitter life situation assumedly affected the couple’s relationship quite badly. Those dirty words used in the play must have been exchanged truly in the quarrels between Frost and his wife.