First Death in Nova Scotia

“I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain” by Emily Dickinson (1896)

The canonized 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson also presents death as eerie and jarring. As with Bishop’s poem, death is an isolated, unfeeling experience. The mourners in Dickinson’s poem are not warm but oppressive, and Dickinson’s speaker experiences death on their own. After they confront death, they reveal that they’re “[f]inished knowing” (Line 20). Yet the speaker doesn’t clarify what they know. As with Bishop’s poem, Dickinson’s poem suggests that death is not easily understood. Even if someone experiences death—as Dickinson’s speaker seemingly does—what they went through isn’t communicable to the living reader.

“The Rites for Cousin Vit” by Gwyndelon Brooks (1949)

Bishop’s speaker injects life into their cousin Arthur. In a similar vein, 20th-century American poet Gwendolyn Brooks undercuts norms and brings back the titular Cousin Vit. After going along with the funeral, Vit rises out of her coffin and returns to her sensuous life. While Bishop’s poem about death stays stark and cold, Brooks undercuts death’s iciness by detailing Vit’s pleasurable life. Unlike Arthur, Vit had palpable fun. Brooks establishes a playful, melodious tone that counters Bishop’s atonal, dispassionate voice.

“The Shampoo” by Elizabeth Bishop (1955)

“The Shampoo” is a lyric poem from Bishop’s second collection of poems, A Cold Spring. The poem embodies Bishop’s defamiliarizing poetics. In “First Death,” Bishop’s young speaker reveals the eeriness of death, and in “The Shampoo,” Bishop’s adult speaker showcases new ways to perceive washing another person’s hair. Through imagery, the speaker turns the hair of the other person into a different land, replete with rocks and “shooting stars” (Line 13). The poem is another example of Bishop’s subtle confessional style, with Bishop serving as the speaker and the person’s hair she’s washing being Lota.

“Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath (1965)

Sylvia Plath is a 20th-century American poet closely linked to the confessional genre. Many readers view her work in the context of her contentious marriage to the English poet Ted Hughes and her death by suicide. Plath, like Bishop, presents death as jarring and scary. Yet her speaker makes death personal and passionate, with the speaker bragging about their ability to die and come back to life. In Bishop’s poem, the speaker doesn’t think that Arthur has the resources to transcend death and visit the British royals at their court. However, Plath’s speaker seems to have the power to do almost anything and overpower nearly any obstacle.