Death—An Invincible Fact of Life: A Comparative Study Between Emily Dickinson and Louise Gluck

Abstract

The theme of death or mortality has been a recurrent theme in the works of many writers in literature. From time to time, various authors have discussed death in their works in different ways presenting it from different perspectives. It is a universal theme not confined to any specific group of people, country, or religion. This study focuses on the presentation of death in the poems of two female American poets Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) and Louise Gluck (1943 till today). Though both these female poets belong to two different centuries, the presentation of death in their works plays a dominant role. The presentation of death in the poems of Emily Dickinson makes the readers ponder over the concept of death from various angles. Similarly, the end of human life is one of the central themes of the poems of Louise Gluck. The discussion of death takes different shapes in the poetry of Louise Gluck. For this study, two pieces have been selected from the collection of Emily Dickinson and two pieces have been chosen from the collection of Louise Gluck. Hence, this present study aims to show the similarities and the differences between the concept and presentation of death in the works of these two leading female poets in the selected pieces.