A Comparison Of Because I Could Not Stop For Death And Crossing The Bar

The poems “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson and “Crossing the Bar” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson are similar in two ways. They are also different in one way. First, they are both referring to death. Secondly, they are showing death in the form of a journey. Finally, they are different in the way that “Because I could not stop for Death” is using personification for death. Where “Crossing the Bar” is using metaphors to describe death. Our first similarity is that both the poems are referring to death. In “Crossing the Bar” our reader says “I hope to see my Pilot face to face/When I have crost the bar.”(Lines 15-16) This line enables us to know that the reader is talking about himself dying and passing over into the afterlife. In addition, when Dickinson says “Because I could not stop for
The first Stanza of his poem says, “Sunset and evening star, /And one clear call for me! / And may there be no moaning of the bar, / When I put out to sea,” (Lines 1-4). From research Tennyson is writing the poem near the end of his life. Furthermore, that’s why this stanza might be coming off as if someone is talking about taking a fishing trip in the sea. However, he is actually talking about being called home or dying. He writes his poem as though it is a journey to sea, instead of a sad drag to death. Moreover, in the poem “Because I could not stop for Death” Dickson is going on a carriage ride through her death. The poem states, “The carriage held but just ourselves.’(Line 3). From just the first stanza of this poem we know that death has come and picked her up in a carriage. The poem is continuing on to say, “We passed the School, where Children strove-“(Line 9). Here, they are riding along in a carriage; kind of like a ghost in the background of the world going on around them. Dickinson is choosing to show us her journey through death in a more immortal