Essay #9, Still partying like 1999

                       Death has forever boggled the human mind. Poets for centuries have taken on this ideological challenge, including the poets John Kreats and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. These two poets took on the issue very similarly in there use of imagery of the sky, and first-person stream of conscientiousness approach to writing their own thoughts on the subject. Their relation of death to words took on two very different forms however. Kreats viewed death as sweet nothingness to embrace, and Longfellow saw it simply as a loud blast to take you away from that of which you once knew. The two authors analyzed deaths very similarly in their approach and form of their poems, but differed drastically in the theme of which they emitted when dealing with death.

                        At a very fundamental level, the two authors wrote in very similar style. Both referenced themselves directly, and followed the emotions of which they felt as they wrote. Fear was the first emotion to come to each of their minds, and each looked back to their pasts for answers. The key to these similarities is the use of first-person pronoun references, such as the word "I" which is used in each. This technique helps share their personal thoughts via "Montaigne" self-reflection style, which helps make it more relatable for the reader.
                        
                       The authors are also very similar in the imagery that they relate the sense of death with. Their use of the sky is very similar, both with clouds in the sky, and the setting being dark. This represents the unknown for both authors, as neither knows what is to come. It is a distant setting which had not been explored to extent during this time period, and allowed for very open ended imagery. This wide open space helped convey a sense of vastness of death, and how it puzzles the mind.

                    Although the style and imagery of the two authors is very similar, the message of each of them varies quite a bit. While both focus on fear early in their poems, Keat's ends up accepting death, while Longfellow simply fears its embrace. These two feelings are conveyed through a similar sense- sound. Acceptance comes through sweet silence, and the worries of the natural phenomenon come through harsh, thundering sounds. These two messages, while conveyed in similar ways, show very different feelings on what death means to the individual author.