The Attributes of Death in Poetry

A fundamental psychological and existential concern, the idea of death is explored in “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson, “When Death Comes” by Mary Oliver, “Suicide Note” by Anne Sexton, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” by Emily Dickinson. Each of these poems uses distinctive literary devices to analyze the nature of death from different perspectives. Accordingly, they convey varying descriptions of death. However, despite their different approaches, the poems largely agree with one another as they portray three characteristic features of death as it is conceived in the human mind. The first commonality is found in “When Death Comes,” “Suicide Note,” and “Richard Cory” as, through their speakers, these poems explore death in terms its universality; death is something that all living things must someday face. Second, the poems “Not Waving but Drowning,” and “Suicide Note” each depict the psychological subjectivity of death; it is something which must be experienced alone. Finally, “When Death Comes,” “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died,” and “Not Waving but Drowning” each describe the overwhelming incomprehensibility of death; it is essentially unknown to human beings, and therefore death is also curiously fascinating. Each of these poems look at death through different lenses, but these viewpoints eventually converge on and highlight its fundamentally universal, subjective and incomprehensible nature.

The universality of death is perhaps most directly articulated in “Suicide Note” as the speaker predicts that he or she will “sink with hundreds of others / on a dumbwaiter into hell.” (19-20) The others that the speaker mentions indicate that he or she is not alone in dying; many will share the same fate. While here, the speaker only mentions the hundreds who accompany him or her on the descent, he or she directly references the universal aspect of death in line 69-71 telling the reader of the note “Everyone has a death / his own death / waiting for him.” (Suicide) In addition to referring to the idea that death is universal, the speakers use of the present tense possessive “has” highlights that death is not an abstraction off in the future; it is something that human beings have in common at the present. The universality of death is also in the forefront of “When Death Comes” as Mary Oliver’s speaker identifies, “each name a comfortable music in the mouth / tending, as all music does, toward silence.” (17-18) The speaker is here using the names, the music, and silence to as symbols to describe the eventuality of death; life, like music, is beautiful, but they both must come to an end at some point. “Richard Cory” speaks much to this same point. This poem is comprised in an alternate rhyme scheme of ABAB, which leads the reader to associate the poem with a ballad telling the story of a great or heroic figure. Richard Corey, the subject of the poem, very much fits this bill, being described as “a gentleman from soul to crown,” wealthy, respected, and admired. (3) However, his suicide at the end of the poem is Robinson’s evidence that there is no person, regardless of status or rank, for whom death is not inevitable. Through their use of language, symbolism, and irony, these three poems serve to highlight the universality of death. 

The idea that death is a purely subjective experience is a key theme in Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving but Drowning.” While the poem is thematically concerned with the isolation as none of the people who knew the dead man when he was living understood that, “(he) was much farther out than (they) thought / and not waving but drowning.” (3-4) As none of the people gathered around his body do not hear him, now that he is dead, his alienation from those around him is even more emphatic; he was alone in life, and he continues to be alone in death. Additionally, the subjective nature of death is referenced in Sexton’s “Suicide Note” before the poem even begins. The quote by Artaud that comprises the first epigraph of the poem states, “You speak to me of narcissism but I reply that it is a matter of my life.” (Suicide) Sexton’s appropriation of this line serves to highlight the intensely personal aspect of death; suicide may well be narcissistic in a sense, but every person’s death is theirs alone, and they must face it by themselves, whether voluntarily or otherwise. Furthermore, the speaker of the poem says of his or her suicide, “Of course guitars will not play! / The snakes will certainly not notice / New York City will not mind.” (96-98) By listing the things that will not happen when the speaker ends his or her own life, the speaker demonstrates that the difference between a person’s life and death is, cosmically speaking, negligible. The speaker’s decision to live or die is his or her concern and no one else’s. In keeping with this theme, Dickinson’s “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” also serves to portray the subjectivity of death. Much like the dead man in “Not Waving but Drowning,” Dickinson’s speaker has already died and is recalling the events that occurred just before his or her death. The speaker relates having, “Willed (his or her) keepsakes, signed away / What portion of me I / Could make assignable” ( 9-11) Here the speaker makes a distinction between one’s possessions, which can be given away, and one’s essence, which is his or her own. This intangible part of a person is what the speaker is left with just before dying. Before darkness overcomes the speaker, he or she focuses on the fly, and the speaker’s bedside visitors, which are described as eyes rather than persons, fade into the background of the poem, leaving the speaker to face death, darkness, and the fly alone. These poems prove that the experience of death is not one that can be shared; every person must eventually face it on their own.

Finally, “Not Waving but Drowning,” “When Death Comes,” and “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died,” each relate the incomprehensibility of death in their own way: mankind’s inability to know anything for certain about death. It is telling that, when the dead man in Smith’s “Not Waving but Drowning” tries to communicate to those gathered around his body, he talks about life rather than the other side. (11-12) The dead man’s words are significant because of what they say and because of what they don’t say. Due to the dead man’s repetitive focus on his life, he directs the reader to the past rather than the present and creates a void by concealing death from the reader’s eyes and accentuating its mystery. This silent implication of death’s ultimate incomprehensibility is directly stated in “When Death Comes.” Oliver’s speaker informs the reader that when death arrives, he or she “want(s) to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: / what is it going to be like in that cottage of darkness?” (9-10) In this statement, the speaker’s curiosity when he or she steps through the door and the imagery of a dark cottage both attest to unknown nature of death. Darkness is similarly associated with death in Dickinson’s “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died.” As the speaker recalls the moment of death, he or she informs the reader that the fly eclipsed the light, “And then the windows failed, and then / I could not see to see.” (15-16) As the fly, a symbol of death in this poem, obstructs the light, which is by contrast a symbol of life, the speaker’s eyes, being the windows of the soul, finally fail. The speaker, in death is without a point of reference from which to describe death. As is the case with “Not Waving but Drowning,” the speaker’s silence regarding the experience of being dead is deafening. In this way, like “Not Waving but Drowning” and “When Death Comes,” Dickinson’s poem draws the reader to death’s incomprehensibility. 

Respectively, the speakers, imagery, symbolism, language, and forms of these poems contribute to the inquiry into the nature of death in their own ways. While these poems approach their common subject from a variety of different vantage points, their analyses agree on the fundamental attributes of death as it is perceived through the limited rationality of human beings. The poems by Sexton, Oliver, and Robinson each serve to highlight the ineluctable universality of death and describe how everyone, one way or another, will have to come to terms with their own mortality. Additionally, Smith, Sexton, and Dickinson’s poems elucidate upon the intensely personal and existential ownership of death that all human beings are born with and, in this way, direct the reader’s attention to the subjectivity of death. Finally, the poems by Smith, Oliver and Dickinson portray the harrowing mysteriousness of death as being the ultimate unknown and thus highlight the incomprehensibility of this universal and subjective fate. Human beings may indeed be hopelessly ignorant about the nature of death, that is, death as a thing in itself; however, these poems agree on these three clear and disquieting aspects of death as we perceive it looming before us.

Works Cited

Dickinson, Elizabeth. "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died." Literature: The Human Experience: Reading and Writing. Eds. Richard Abcarian, and Marvin Klotz. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007. 1063-1064. Print. 

Oliver, Mary. "When Death Comes." Literature: The Human Experience: Reading and Writing. Eds. Richard Abcarian, and Marvin Klotz. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007. 1086-1087. Print. 

Robinson, Edwin A. "Richard Cory." Literature: The Human Experience: Reading and Writing. Eds. Richard Abcarian, and Marvin Klotz. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007. 1075. Print. 

Sexton, Anne. "Suicide Note." Literature: The Human Experience: Reading and Writing. Eds. Richard Abcarian, and Marvin Klotz. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007. 1088-1089. Print. 

Smith, Stevie. "Not Waving but Drowning." Literature: The Human Experience: Reading and Writing. Eds. Richard Abcarian, and Marvin Klotz. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007. 1040. Print.