Comparison Of Because I Could Not Stop For Death And Acoustics Test

The two poems, “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson and “Acoustics Test” by Camisha L. Jones both discuss the same topic of death and the losses surrounding it. Slight differences in these poems such as mood, Dickinson’s more comforting mood throughout the protagonist's journey opposed to Jones’ more depressing pessimistic mood, tone, Dickinson’s personification of Death into a figure contrasting Jones’ objectification of death not mentioning it even once, and the plot and characters’ actions in both stories, Dickinson’s character on the ride with Death showing fields and sunsets is very comforting which is the opposite of Jones’ one sided confrontation with her character creating a very stressed and tense situation, create

In her writing Dickinson uses scenes that comfort her character and the reader, “We passed the school, where children strove/ At Recess - in the ring - / We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain - / We passed the Setting Sun”(9-12) creating scenes that influence the idea to not fear death but to expect and accept it because with life there will always be death. The scenes comfort the character and reader by portraying positive moments in life, childish innocence, intensely beautiful fields that capture eyes, and colorful sunsets, each one of these scenes being shown to the character by Death gives the views surrounding death less negative and more accepting rather than being feared. Meanwhile in Jones’ writing she creates a very tense and stressful situation the character is in, “This is a test”(7). The repetition of this phrase in response to the other voice’s prompts create a very one sided conversation. The combination of the one sidedness and the repetition by the main character induce a very stressful mood to open the poem. Jones’ opening writing attributes to a more pessimistic view in contrast to Dickinson’s comforting

Dickinson personifies death giving him an identity. Dickinson capitalizes the word “Death” when it is used throughout her poem, “Because I could not stop for Death-”(1), she also refers the the two of them as two people together, “The Carriage held but just Ourselves”(3), combining these two writing strategies effectively allows Dickinson to give Death an identity in her poem. This identity gives Death more human-like characteristics. Thus creating a more broad spectrum of the occurrence of death and that it happens to everyone at some point and leads readers to become more accepting of the idea of death in her idea of Death. Opposing ideas are shown in jones’ writing. She objectifies death, never even mentioning it but limiting its identity to the one disease her main character is facing, “ But Ménière's has a way/ Of stripping the noun out of “hu-man’/ reducing me, to lesser adjectives/ Reducing me, to echo”(50-53). Her reference to death as a singular disease creates a feeling that death is given to everyone at birth, that once you are born you are simply waiting to