Comparing Chariot And Seeger's I Have A Rendezvous With Death
ne
Dr. Georgia Wilder
ENGB04H3
August 2, 2011
To Fear or Not to Fear- A Look at Death in Emily Dickinson’s “The Chariot” and Alan Seeger’s “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” Is death something to be feared when it may be considered the only aspect during life that is inevitable? Interestingly, the speakers in two poems written by Emily Dickinson and Alan Seeger may not feel that this is the case. In Dickinson’s “The Chariot”, the feminine speaker compares succumbing to death as a chariot ride passing places she has been in her life, while the speaker in Seeger’s “I have a Rendezvous with Death” is a masculine speaker that is assumed to be a soldier fighting in the war and experiencing many close encounters with this morbid experience. …show more content…
Through the use of diction, both poets are able to create a tone that demonstrates and adds to their speaker’s overall acceptance or rejection of death. As mentioned earlier, Dickinson uses such words such as “civility” and “kindness” to describe death which ultimately sets up a light tone when speaking of death. This is again related back to the easiness the speaker has with death, due to the long time for which she has been dead. Dickinson further uses the word “chariot” in the title, as well as referring to a “carriage” in the first stanza, which sets up an expectation that the poem will proceed slowly, which is true. The slowness assists with the idea of time because being that poem is slowed down with the words used in combination with longer line lengths and enjambment, the overall sense that the speaker is in no rush and accepting of her circumstance is presented. The tone is quite tranquil and somewhat content as it seems that the speaker is accepting of her fate. Considering this with Seeger’s poem though, there are noticeable shifts in tone due to specific word choices. Initially the tone of the poem is similar to that of Dickinson’s, as the most recurrent word throughout the poem, “rendezvous”, sets a clear tone. This word choice is very important because the poet decided to use a friendly term which one would assume is does out of free will and shows the approval of a meeting with death. Yet as the poem continues on, other words work well to contradict this meaning. The tone begins to shift from the implied tone with the title, to the speaker commenting that they will have their rendezvous at “some disputed barricade” (Seeger, 2). This automatically brings into focus that the speaker must be someone who knows
Dr. Georgia Wilder
ENGB04H3
August 2, 2011
To Fear or Not to Fear- A Look at Death in Emily Dickinson’s “The Chariot” and Alan Seeger’s “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” Is death something to be feared when it may be considered the only aspect during life that is inevitable? Interestingly, the speakers in two poems written by Emily Dickinson and Alan Seeger may not feel that this is the case. In Dickinson’s “The Chariot”, the feminine speaker compares succumbing to death as a chariot ride passing places she has been in her life, while the speaker in Seeger’s “I have a Rendezvous with Death” is a masculine speaker that is assumed to be a soldier fighting in the war and experiencing many close encounters with this morbid experience. …show more content…
Through the use of diction, both poets are able to create a tone that demonstrates and adds to their speaker’s overall acceptance or rejection of death. As mentioned earlier, Dickinson uses such words such as “civility” and “kindness” to describe death which ultimately sets up a light tone when speaking of death. This is again related back to the easiness the speaker has with death, due to the long time for which she has been dead. Dickinson further uses the word “chariot” in the title, as well as referring to a “carriage” in the first stanza, which sets up an expectation that the poem will proceed slowly, which is true. The slowness assists with the idea of time because being that poem is slowed down with the words used in combination with longer line lengths and enjambment, the overall sense that the speaker is in no rush and accepting of her circumstance is presented. The tone is quite tranquil and somewhat content as it seems that the speaker is accepting of her fate. Considering this with Seeger’s poem though, there are noticeable shifts in tone due to specific word choices. Initially the tone of the poem is similar to that of Dickinson’s, as the most recurrent word throughout the poem, “rendezvous”, sets a clear tone. This word choice is very important because the poet decided to use a friendly term which one would assume is does out of free will and shows the approval of a meeting with death. Yet as the poem continues on, other words work well to contradict this meaning. The tone begins to shift from the implied tone with the title, to the speaker commenting that they will have their rendezvous at “some disputed barricade” (Seeger, 2). This automatically brings into focus that the speaker must be someone who knows