Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' by Robert Frost and 'Because I could not Stop for Death' by Emily Dickinson: A Comparative Study

The study of literature is obviously the study of life and death. Literature deals with several nuances of life, death and the philosophies connected. Literature mirrors life and that is how we can realize what life is in a very meaningful way. In literature most of the poetry enlightens the readers through such meanings. This paper focuses on two eminent poets of American literature, i.e. Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, whose poetry mainly deals with life and death. Both the poets are known for their idiosyncrasies depicting their own style and content. Their poems are philosophical in nature, visualizing nature, relationship, divinity and spirituality. Both the poets were close to nature and spent their lives amidst the beauties of nature. Their poetry is simplistic and honest expressing the daily activities of life.

SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH e- ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 VOL. 8, ISSUE 4, APRIL 2020 www.ijellh.com 128 During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson was known more widely as a gardener perhaps than as a poet. Susan Dickinson's unfulfilled plan for a memoir of her sister-in-law listed "Love of flowers" as Emily's first attribute. Her poetry, for the most part privately "published," was often enclosed in letters pinned together by flowers, or in bouquets that made the poem concealed at the flowers' center and the flowers themselves on message.
Even before she wrote poems, Dickinson was engaged in gathering, tending, In providing an overview of Frost's style, the Poetry Foundation makes the same point, placing Frost's work "at the crossroads of nineteenth-century American poetry and modernism [with his use of idiomatic language and ordinary, everyday subject matter]." They also note that Frost believed that "the self-imposed restrictions of meter in form" was more helpful than harmful because he could focus on the content of his poems instead of concerning himself with creating "innovative" new verse forms. In Contemporary Literary Criticism, the editors state that The first and foremost aspect is about journey. The poems are in continuous process and both the poems begin with journey. There are common elements like halts, horse, carriage etc.
The differences can be seen in the aspects like pace of the journey which is both slow and fast and if one poem begins with life and ends with death, the other begins with death and ends with immortality.
In 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' the poet narrates his journey, how he halts for a moment mesmerized by the beauty of woods in that snowy evening. He knows the owner of the woods but nothing stops him to stand and stare at the beauty which was momentary. He watches the woods fill up with snow. Though he stops there for some time, the poet knows very well that this cannot be eternal. He has to go miles before he sleeps because he has promises to keep. His companion in the journey is a horse. The poet tries to understand the horse's thoughts  time. Death is inevitable and real, leading mortals into immortality afterlife. Death is personified and is rendered as though he is a sweet companion. The first lines illustrate the point.
"Because I could not stop for Death -He kindly stopped for me - The Carriage held but just Ourselves -And Immortality".
The lines clarify the meaning of life, death and afterlife. She narrates how with ease death accompanies her along the journey and takes her away to the world of eternity. There is a paradox in the last lines of the poem where she explains that 'its centuries and yet feels shorter than a day', which explains the temporariness of life and eternity of death.
Thus, the poems 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' and 'Because I could not Stop for Death' travel in the same boat of meaning having lot of commonalities and few dissimilarities.