Le Steve Eng 103- Dr. Soles 11/1/05
Comparing the Poetry of William Blake and Emily Dickinson
William Blake and Emily Dickinson both used symbolism very often in their poetry. They used symbolism as a way to use abstract concepts as the theme of their poems. For instance, in Blake's "The Tyger", the tiger is a symbol that shows evil is real, that a force other than God must exist and must have created the tiger. That is similar to the way Dickinson uses the symbol of the gun to show how people can have relationships, fairly complex relations, with nonliving things. The tiger and the gun are merely concrete symbols used to convey abstract conceptual themes. These poems are not the only examples of these author's using symbolism. Blake also wrote "The Lamb", a poem which uses the lamb as a symbol of good, of God. The poems are basically opposites of each other. The Lamb shares it's name with the one who created it- "Dost thou know who created thee?... He is called by thy name." He is referring to the lamb of God. The Lamb is such an innocent and beautiful creature, it must have been created by God himself. On the other hand, the tiger couldn't have been created by God, because it is such a fierce and fearful animal. Blake repeatedly asks who created the tiger, but never gets an answer: "what immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry?"... "Did he who make the Lamb make thee? I think that Blake uses each animal as his way of nothing that good and evil exist, and
they are separate forces. The lamb is proof that God exists and creates all that is good in the world. The tiger is proof that the devil exists, and makes all that is evil and frightening in the world. Each animal is something that everyone is familiar with, and Blake uses them to show people examples of abstract concepts like good and evil. Dickinson makes similar use of symbolism in "My Life Had Stood- a Loaded Gun" and "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died." In the first example, the gun is personified. The gun almost acts like a companion to the owner, even sleeping with it. In reality, it's just a gun. But Dickinson uses it as a symbol of how people have intimate relationships with their own belongings. They hunt together, sleep together, the gun provides security, and the gun will outlive the owner. At first you think she's using a deep metaphor, but then you realize she's actually talking about a gun. But she still uses the gun as a symbol. This man's life is dependant on that gun. They do everything together, and it serves as a symbol of how a personal possession like a gun can be much more than a gun. It can be a companion, a safeguard. It can express emotions, like revenge and vengefulness. Again, she uses the gun symbolize to the depth of people's relationship with material things, which is a deep concept. "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" is also full of this type of symbolism. Some think that the fly, like the tiger, symbolizes the presence of the devil and of evil. But I think that the symbolism she uses more than likely would support the idea that the fly represents the insignificance and commonality in death. Certainly if we are to believe that the symbolism used in "My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun" is at all similar to that used in "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died", then that would lead us to believe that the fly represents the more abstract theme of the insignificance in death, rather than the specific representation of Satan.
In I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" an anonymous person lies on their death bed. They ponder relativistic, practical aspects of death- facing an afterlife, the signing away of keepsakes ("I willed my Keepsakes- signed away"). Then all of a sudden the speaker notices the presence of the fly ("and then it was, there interposed a Fly" 12), and it suddenly becomes moot. Death is something that every person through out history has had to face. What makes her death so profound? Whatever sacredness that existed in that moment is superficial. In reality, death is a common occurrence, as common as the presence of your average house fly. This style of symbolism is not unique to these two poets. For example, in Frost's A Road Less Traveled", one particular road represents the abstract themes of life choices and nonconformity. Another example is Hawthorne's Minister's Black Veil, where the veil represents shame. I wondered if this was a poetic tool used by author's of a particular time period, but I wasn't able to find enough examples The comparison of the two poets and their poems is not without noticeable differences. Blake's theme are decidedly more abstract than Dickinson's. The style of symbolism that Dickinson uses is more covert, while Blake's is almost blatant. The language used by Blake is more sensational, whereas Dickinson is characteristically subdued. Blake wrote many pairs of poems that provided contrast, his poems are dynamic. But Dickinson, however, rarely broke the dreary, pessimistic tone and subjects. While these differences are in fact present, they do not discount the similarities between the style of symbolism that each author uses. This type of symbolism is often used in poetry and in fiction with poetic language. They are able to get their audience to consider abstract themes without ever addressing them head on. They use simple symbols to make complex concepts more approachable. That is the common thread that exists between two seemingly very different
poets.