I died for Beauty—but was scarce
The poet says that she died for Beauty, but she was hardly adjusted to her tomb before a man who died for Truth was laid in a tomb next to her. When the two softly told each other why they died, the man declared that Truth and Beauty are the same, so that he and the poet were "Brethren." The poet says that they met at night, "as Kinsmen," and talked between their tombs until the moss reached their lips and covered up the names on their tombstones.
its manner of presentation belongs uniquely to Dickinson. In this short lyric, Dickinson manages to include a sense of the macabre physicality of death ("Until the Moss had reached our lips--"), the high idealism of martyrdom ("I died for Beauty. . . One who died for Truth"), a certain kind of romantic yearning combined with longing for Platonic companionship ("And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night--"), and an optimism about the afterlife (it would be nice to have a like-minded friend) with barely sublimated terror about the fact of death (it would be horrible to lie in the cemetery having a conversation through the walls of a tomb). As the poem progresses, the high idealism and yearning for companionship
gradually give way to mute, cold death, as the moss creeps up the speaker's corpse and her headstone, obliterating both her capacity to speak (covering her lips) and her identity (covering her name).
The ultimate effect of this poem is to show that every aspect of human life--ideals, human feelings, identity
itself--is erased by death. But by making the erasure gradual--something to be "adjusted" to in the tomb--and by portraying a speaker who is untroubled by her own grim state, Dickinson creates a scene that is, by turns, grotesque and compelling, frightening and comforting. It is one of her most singular statements about death, and like so many of Dickinson's poems, it has no parallels in the work of any other writer.
Edgar Allan Poe 艾伦坡Annabel Lee 安娜贝尔李Theme
The poet describes a deeplove between him and his lover Annabel Lee which is so great that even the winged seraphs of Heaven envy them for it. The poet contributes Annabel Lee’s death to the angel’s envy. “That was the reason
That the wind came out of a cloud chilling
And killing my Annabel Lee.”
But even after Annabel Lee’s death no power can separate the poet’s soul from his lover. He lies down by the side of her tomb every night when the moon and the star remind him of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
Annabel Leeis a melodious-sounded lady’s name which easily makes readers think of a beautiful gentle lady. And the poet skillfully makes the sound into the rhyme. The repetition of the melodious long rhyme “see Lee me” gives a sense of solemnity and melancholy. The poet also uses internal rhyme such as “beams” rhymes with “dreams”“rise” with “eyes” and “tide” with “side” to make the poem musical. The sound is like the insistent
tolling of a bell not unlike that sound of church-bells at a funeral heavily beating on reader’s hearts.
The poem is a combination of fairytale and dream. Annabel Lee stands for the poet’s wife Virginia. The poet begins with the narration of a fairy tale and falls into a dream in the end of the poem. In the dream he can free himself from the pains of losing his love and can meet his darling and enjoy the everlasting love. The illusory picture by the sea creates a romantic atmosphere for beautiful and everlasting love. His sademotions are fully expressed in such an atmosphere.
The poem begins with a pleasanttone: the poet creates a perfect fairylikedreamland where his maiden and he loved each other deeply. Then the poem bears a melancholytone: their love was envied by angels; their love was faced with strong oppositions and tough surroundings and Annabel’s life was taken away by the cold wind and the angels; they were separated thereafter. But the poet would not give up his live. He made an unswervingdeclaration of love: neither the angel in heaven or demons down under the sea would dissever my soul from the soul of Annabel Lee. Death dream and beauty are perfectly integrated in the poem. The unfortunate life experience and his pursuit of love are expressed in his singing of a beauty’sdeath in his dreams.