Comparison Between Themes Of Death In Emily Dickinson’s And Li He’s Poems

Emily Dickinson is one of the greatest poets in America, Li He is a famous poet who lives in the Mid-Tang Dynasty. They are all good at writing ghost. Their poems impress the readers deeply. This thesis mainly focuses on the theme of death in Emily Dickson’s and Li He’s poems to penetrate into the forming factors of such theme.The life of Dickinson and Li He is shrouded in the shadow of death, which is full of the blow and suffering from the death. Under such background of their personal experience, Dickinson and Li He start to write their poems. But there are similarities and differences of death themes in both poets’ poems. They all have fear for death, and begin to hold a suspicious attitude toward gods and fairies after failures. They deem life to be a circular structure, which is reflected on the circular time concept in their poems. However, their deep attitude toward death is different in that Li He writes about gods and fairies in order to release his inner fear about death, therefore he is still fascinated by life and suspicious about immortality, while in Dickinson’s case, she hold a peaceful attitude toward death and believes that death means to get immortality. The forming factors of the theme of death which is same and different in Dickinson’s and Li He’s poems are their social and cultural background. Although the period of America which Dickinson lives in breaks several wars, the whole stage is rising. On the contrary, the Mid-Tang Dynasty is on the down grade, which is full of dark. Dickinson receipts the idea of Christianity that eternal life is after the death, but Li He doesn’t believe the idea of the birth and death in Taoism totally.