摘要“死亡”是一个神秘而严肃的名词，人们无法通过经验来感受它，所以不同的人对它的看法也是不同的。很多文人墨客都在其著作中展示了他们对死亡的看法。本文运用对比分析法对美国著名的诗人艾米丽·狄金森和沃尔特·惠特曼的死亡观进行了深层次的探索，从两位诗人诗歌中的死亡意象、对死亡到来的态度和对永生与再生的观点来分析他们死亡观的不同,希望有助于人们更好地理解两位诗人的死亡观及其诗歌作品。48822

毕业论文关键词：艾米丽·狄金森; 沃尔特·惠特曼；死亡观；对比分析

Abstract Death is a mysterious and solemn word. People can’t understand it clearly by their experiences, so different people have different views of it. Many writers and poets expressed their ideas about death in their works. This paper mainly discusses the concepts of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman who are the famous American poets by comparative analysis. It compared their different concepts of death by analyzing the images of death in their poems, their attitudes toward the coming of death and their conceptions of immortality and rebirth, so that it will be beneficial to the better understanding of the two poets’ concepts of death and their poems.

Key words: Emily Dickinson; Walt Whitman; concept of death; comparative analysis

A Comparative Analysis of Dickinson’s and Whitman’s Concepts of Death

Contents

摘要 i

Abstract ii

I. Introduction 1

II. Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s Concept of Death 2

2.1 Brief Introduction to Emily Dickinson 2

2.2 The Influence of Dickinson’s Life Experience on her Concept of Death 3

2.3 Dickinson’s Concept of Death Reflected in her Poems 4

2.3.1 The Beauty of Death 4

2.3.2 Death and Immortality 5

III. Analysis of Walt Whitman’s Concept of Death 5

3.1 Brief Introduction to Walt Whitman 6

3.2 The Influence of Whitman’s Life Experience on his Concept of Death 7

3.3 Whitman’s Concept of Death Reflected in his Poems 8

3.3.1 Complementary Life and Death 8

3.3.2 Circulation of Death and Rebirth 8

IV. Comparison Between Dickinson’s and Whitman’s Concepts of Death 9

4.1 Different Images of Death in Their Poems 9

4.2 Different Attitudes Toward the Coming of Death 10

4.3 Different Conceptions of Immortality and Rebirth 12

V. Conclusion 14

Bibliography 16

Acknowledgements 17

I. Introduction

The concept of death is people’s interpretation of death. Different people have different opinions about death because it cannot be judged by human experience. In the literary world, death was discussed by a lot of writers and poets who tried to reveal the mystery of death, so they left a large number of works to talk about death. When people were born, they will be destined to experience death. People will feel fearful when death is mentioned because the majority of people think that death indicates the end of life, which will make people lose everything that belongs to them.