Robert Frost's "Directive"" and Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death"" are both poems that deal with the past in relation to the present of the speaker. Although both Frost's and Dickinson's poems view the past in a positive light, each poem desires to act upon the past in a different way. "Directive"" desires to resurrect the past for the purposes of the living, as the speaker believes that the past is more desirable than the present, while "Because I could not stop for Death"" simply looks upon the past with indifference because the speaker already sees all of time from the perspective of eternity. Robert Frost's "Directive"" romanticizes both the entirety of human history and the individual past of each human being as desirable periods of time in order to highlight the vast difference between the implied beauties of simplicity and the cruelty of a life filled with unnecessary details. Conversely, Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death" " only romanticizes the individual past in order to contrast the insignificance of an individual's history with the breadth of the eternity that awaits all individuals after death. Dickinson's poem renders Frost's poem insignificant in the grand scheme of time and history because her poem revolves around the idea of individuals transcending the concept of time through death and being able to see the entirety of time from the perspective of eternity.
"Directive"" romanticizes the entirety of human history by comparing the span of human existence with that of long-lasting natural landmarks. As Frost's speaker literally traverses to the abandoned town and figuratively traverses through history, he passes an enormous glacier and many trees. Frost personifies the glacier, an object which is known to exist for hundreds or even thousands of years, in order to suggest that it is in agreement with the idea that the past is superior to the present.
Throughout history, there have been many famous poets, such as Robert Frost, William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson. ... The weather sets an image of chaos outside, which drastically contrasts with the calmness of the narrator's chamber. ... The eye is compared to that of a vulture's; animal imagery is common to Poe's work. ...
