Living in Death: A Comparative Critique on the Death Poetry of Emily Dickinson and T.S. Eliot

The uncertainty of one's life and the inevitability of death is a dilemma that has tormented the human mind in all ages. One way of resolving the conundrum has been to imagine, if not firmly believe, that the individual self is immortal and deathless, notwithstanding the fact that the physical body must perish. If nothing, it weans one away from the fear of death towards an earnest hope in a blissful afterlife. Living in Death is a scholarly critique on the death poetry of Emily Dickinson and T. S. Eliot. By deftly comparing their styles, diction, and motifs, Dr. T. D. Peter unravels the beauty of contemplating and courting the compelling presence of death as an unshakeable ontological reality. The author looks through the "mirror of the death" poetry of two signature poets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-the former, an inimitable and indwelling poetic genius who defies classification and transcends time and trends; the latter, a trail-blazing and celebrated scion of modern classical poetry who impresses with his erudition and edification, imagism, and symbolism. He finds more by way of contrast than similarity in their strikingly opposite life lines and, no less, to their varying allegiance to faith and reason, religion and spirituality.