Week 9 Project Action Plan: What to do and how to do it?

I've decided to use the following prompt for my project: "compare and contrast elements of two different texts. For example, explore the similarities and differences between two characters in the texts, or examine how one theme is handled in similar and dissimilar ways in two different texts." I'll be analyzing Poem 1129 by Emily Dickinson and "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" by John Keats and comparing how the two poems approach the theme of death. I'll share my thoughts on how I interpreted various lines from both poems and how they reveal their respective poet's views about death. I believe that John Keats fears death because of how it's an indefinite deadline to accomplish life goals. Emily Dickinson on the other hand doesn't fear death and instead points out the ways other people cope with or deny the idea of death.

My work-in-progress thesis statement is: When analyzing the theme of death present in the poems written by John Keats and Emily Dickinson, we can see that John Keats feared death whereas Emily Dickinson simply viewed death as an inevitable part of human life.

Notes:

• Consonance in the first line of Poem 1129. "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--" (489). This line introduces Dickinson's belief that the subject of death must be approached delicately because of how easily it can terrify people. It also touches on how the truth about death is told in different ways that hide the true nature of death.
• "Too bright for our infirm delight" is about how death is too powerful a subject and human content is easily disrupted (489)
• "The Truth's superb surprise" addresses how reality is going to hit people in the face at one point or another whether they like it or not (489)
• The second stanza of the poem expands on the ideas introduced in the first stanza. I'll also be analyzing the lines more thoroughly for the proving my point in the project.
• When speaking about Keats, I will be analyzing each line thoroughly as well, but I will list here in my notes the main subject matter that will be brought up
• Keats fears death
• He worries that he'll die before he can write down every meaningful thought he's wanted to share with his readers
• He has many things he wants to accomplish in life and fears he'll die before he has the time.
• He wonders about his love life and if he will be satisfied with how much of it he can experience before he dies.
• He realizes that his desires in the world are nothing in the grand scheme of things given how large the world is.

Here are my sources I will be using:

Dickinson, Emily. "1129." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. D, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 489

Keats, John. "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. D, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 407