The Attitudes of Death by the Deceased

Emily Dickinson and Randall Jarrell both use a unique style of narration, having the deceased speak. Only through this manifestation do these poems have a lasting impact and greater meaning. Both in Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly Buzz—“and in Jarrell’s “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” death is portrayed through the words of the posthumous speakers without the orthodox conception of heaven, but instead with an anomalistic manifestation of death as purely …

…speakers developed attitude about death is that in life it is looked upon as a holy event, yet in actuality when it finally comes you are cast out from life and just die. The greater meaning which can be derived from the speakers’ view of death is that life should be cherished and lived to the fullest as it is all the time you will have and that once it is over, it is over.