Immortality

Immortality, there has never been a greater wish. It seems as if mankind always needs more time, and yet time is always wasted, just to end eternally in death. Mankind lives to die, and time is what happens in between. Poems such as Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" and Dylan Thomas's "Fern Hill" discuss the ideas of birth or youthfulness, time and death.

Birth or youthfulness is discussed in both Dickinson and Thomas's poems. Dickinson's poem, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" is a poem discussing the concept of birth. She reflects upon birth or youthfulness as she "passed the School, where Children strove"(Dickinson, 9) as a time of energy and hopes for the future, and striving to fulfil their desires. She sees childhood or youthfulness as fun, full of energy and exuberance. She remembers the good times playing "at recess -in the ring" (Emily Dickinson, 10). Thomas's poem "Fern Hill" also discusses the idea of birth or youthfulness. Thomas remembers playing "... prince of the apple towns" (Thomas, 6) prince would symbolizes the character he takes upon himself while playing his childhood game, and having fun and being "...green and carefree" (Thomas, 10), innocent without care or responsibility. He views childhood as a time of innocence, ignorance of the real world and full of fun. Consequently, Dickinson and Thomas's poems both share the same concept of birth through youthfulness, innocence, energy and exuberance.

In addition to birth, both Dickinson and Thomas focus on time in their poems. Dickinson discusses time in "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by describing aging through repeating the word "passed" as a symbol of movement of life around her "We passed the Setting Sun/ or rather he passed us. "(Emily Dickinson, 12-13). This symbol expresses the idea that time is slowing down, therefore she is slowing down as time goes on and she ages. The setting sun also reflects the idea of aging because light symbolizes life and dark symbolizes death, and the setting sun means that the light is not completely burned out, but fading or aging. Thomas also uses repetitiveness to describe time in his poem "Fern Hill" such as adding the "ed" to the end of verbs, or repeating phrases or words such as "I was" four times or "young" three times throughout his poem. As a result, using repetitiveness to show the passing of time is present in both Dickinson and Thomas's