Final answer:
Emily Dickinson's poems "I Heard a Fly Buzz —When I Died" and "I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain" share the topic of the internal experience of death and the process of grieving. Evidence from the poems includes the portrayal of a stillness anticipating death and the vivid description of a mental procession.
Step-by-step explanation:
Shared Themes in Dickinson's Poems
The two poems by Emily Dickinson, “I Heard a Fly Buzz —When I Died” and "I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain,” share the topic of exploring the consciousness of death and the internal experience of dying. In both, the speakers are in a liminal space between life and death, touching on the process of grieving but more focused on the internal experience of the moments at or near death. The shared subject matter is rather concerned with the transitions of life to death from a personal, introspective view.
Evidence from the Poems
- “I Heard a Fly Buzz — When I Died” portrays a stillness that anticipates the passage from life to an afterlife, symbolized by the mundane presence of a fly and the cessation of the speaker's own consciousness, highlighting Dickinson's unique view on the threshold of death.
- “I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain” vividly describes a mental procession, akin to the unraveling of the mind or a descent into madness, which can be interpreted as a metaphor for dying or perhaps the cognitive process of grieving one's own end.
Both poems elegantly capture the ephemerality of life and the inevitability of death without falling into despondency. This is achieved through the utilization of imagery that surprisingly incorporates mundane details, maintaining a certain lightness amidst solemn themes.