Comparative Analysis of Philip Larkin and Emily Dickinson Poems

'Because I could not stop for Death' is one of Emily Dickinson's well-known poems and was composed around 1863. Dickinson, a prominent literary figure, often uses the theme of death in her poems and wrote this poem drawing inspiration from a cemetery near her house. In the poem, a female speaker tells the story of how she was visited by 'Death', personified as a 'kindly' gentleman, and taken for a ride in his carriage. This ride takes the speaker past symbols of the different stages of life, before coming to a stop at what is most likely her own grave. Much of the poem's power comes from its denial to provide easy or simplistic answers to life's greatest mystery - ‘what happens when people die’ and the poem can be read as the anticipation of a heavenly Christian afterlife.

The major themes of the poem are mortality, death, immortality and the cyclical nature of life and death. Love and spirituality are the minor themes. The poem is divided into six quatrains. The rhyme scheme is ABCB, but the poet did take liberties with this model and doesn’t strictly observe exact rhyme in this poem. The meter is much more consistent. The first and third line is written in iambic tetrameter whereas the second and fourth in iambic trimeter. Emily Dickinson uses irony, personification and metaphor to make the poem more intriguing. The symbols like the carriage, children, fields, house and the sunset can be seen in the poem.

Philip Larkin’s “Ambulances” is a bleak poem composed in 1961 and published in his third major collection, The Whitsun Weddings in 1964. Larkin, a pre-eminent poet of 20th century, was always terrified by the idea of death and often uses ‘fear of death’ as an omnipresent theme in his poetry. ‘Ambulances’ is one such poem which vividly portrays the dread of death while illustrating realistic imagery of an ambulance. The poem describes what happens when somebody seriously ill is taken to hospital in an ambulance. The people observe the ambulance as they are going about their ordinary lives, glancing at the person’s white face (denoting sickness) as he is placed in the ambulance on a stretcher. Witnessing this scene prompts these observers to give a thought on their own mortality, because they feel that the person who has just been taken away in the ambulance and many other ‘poor souls’ never come out of hospital alive. It ends on the note that even the power of love, life, and family cannot push death aside and all mortals are meant to die.

Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” and Philip Larkin’s “Ambulances” are two thought provoking poems which deals with the theme of inevitability of death and transience of life. Though the authors use the same idea of death in their poems, the chosen approaches for defining the central point remain different. While “Because I Couldn’t Stop for Death” gives death a much more positive overtone by dealing with it in an odd and imaginative way, the “Ambulances” highlights the dread and horror associated with the death. In “Because I could not stop for Death”, death is presented as a gentleman who kindly stops his carriage for the speaker to climb in. To the contrary, “Ambulances” presents the terrible images associated with the death and also considers ambulance as a reflection of the death. In addition to this, both these poems clearly state that death is inevitable and uncontrollable. This idea is expressed in “Because I Couldn’t Stop for Death” when speaker says that she couldn’t “stop for Death” -like many other people- but “Death” has every intention of stopping for her with a carriage. In the poem “Ambulances”, he emphasizes the omnipresence and inevitability of death through the line: ‘All streets in time are visited’.

Even though, both these poems are similar with respect to the main theme, they are completely different when the writing and stylistic techniques are concerned. Both “Because I couldn’t stop for Death” and “Ambulances” are characterized by the use of different stylistic devices (personification and metaphor), the contrast in tones of the story (optimistic and depressing), different literary techniques and different writing styles. They even use entirely different symbols like ‘carriage’ and ‘ambulance’ to represent the idea of impending death.

In short, both “Because I Couldn’t Stop for Death” and “Ambulances” discusses about the inevitability of death and transience of human life. However, the difference lies in their approach towards dealing with the theme. While one is unusually light hearted and positive for a death poem, other one is very bleak and depressing. Dickinson and Larkin have perceived the idea of death from two entirely different perspectives. Even though their central theme is the same, the tone, literary devices and all other stylistic techniques are completely different.

To conclude, Emily Dickinson’s “Because I couldn’t stop for Death” and Philip Larkin’s “Ambulances” are simple poems with profound meanings. These poems deal with the theme of inevitability of death and reminds that no mortal can outlive death. It also touches upon the theme of transience of life too. Although these poems have similarities with respect to theme, they are different in almost all other aspects.