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Sun 30 Apr, 2006 07:03 pm
ok, so I totally need help with this. I am supposed to write a compare and contrast paper using the poetry of Emily Dickinson and William Blake. I am a total loss about which ones to use, and how to go about comparing and contrasting...
I was thinking maybe 'The Fly' by William Blake, which is below, and poem #465 by emily dickinson. I am freaking out. Please help. Suggestions on where I can draw comparisons and what is different between these two poems is greatly appreciated.
Little Fly,
Thy summer's play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.
Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength and breath
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.
In a nutshell, the similarities are mainly in subject matter and a general outlook on the impermanence of everything. The differences are largely in tone and style. Dickinson is much more playful. Ain't gonna do a line-by-line analysis for ya.