These are interpretive questions. Please add quotations when answering the questions and detail your answers. 1. In his poem "Memento Mori," Billy Collins uses a simile to compare a lamp to an "old servant" who will join the "small circle of mourners" at his funeral. Why does he make this comparison? What does it suggest about his view of his death? 2. In "Because I could not stop for Death –," Emily Dickinson writes, "He kindly stopped for me." What or—more aptly—who is Dickinson comparing death to? What does this comparison suggest about her attitude toward death? 3. Many of the lines in Dickinson's "I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –" deal with the serious, spiritual aspects of dying. The fly is an interpretation of a somber, spiritual scene, during which the speaker is giving away her "Assignable" portion. This interruption is important in that it leads the speaker to feel "uncertain." Given the final lines of the poem, what is the speaker "uncertain" about? 4. When the speaker of "I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –" says that "the Windows failed," it's clear that she's not talking about literal windows; she's using a metaphor. What do you think "the Windows" stand for? Why is this an appropriate metaphor? 5. Like a few of the other poets we will read in this unit, Dylan Thomas refers to death as "that good night." Why do you think night is such a common metaphor for death? Why do you think Thomas calls death a "good night," especially since he is urging his audience to resist it? 6. If Robert Frost's "After Apple-Picking" is an extended metaphor for death, what does apple-picking represent? And what, then, is the significance of lines 27–31? For I have had too muchOf apple-picking: I am overtiredOf the great harvest I myself desired.There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.

1. Collins compares the lamp to an old servant because he has likely used it many times, its light helping him read or write at nighttime. He explains that everyday objects, like the lamp, remind him of his mortality. While the lamp might be old, it will nevertheless outlive the speaker. This suggests that the speaker views death as an inevitable fact of reality. It doesn’t seem to disturb or bother him; his comical vision of the personified lamp “waddling across the cemetery” to his burial underscores his acceptance of death as a matter-of-fact conclusion.
2. The personified Death in Dickinson’s poem is a gentlemanly suitor who takes the speaker for a leisurely carriage ride. He “kindly” stops to pick her up, and the carriage holds “just Ourselves.” She even remarks upon his “Civility.” This comparison suggests that death is somewhat alluring to the speaker. She is enchanted with the calm kindness with which Death treats her, which indicates a kind of embrace of mortality.
3. This line actually describes the clumsy movements and buzzing of the fly itself, but the speaker is similarly uncertain. In her final moments, the speaker seems calm and focused, but the fly interrupts this. When it comes “Between the light – and me,” the fly seems to disrupt the speaker’s vision of the afterlife. Since the speaker anticipates going to heaven to see the “King,” perhaps the fly blocking the light indicates the speaker’s fate is different. The speaker is likely uncertain about what is actually going to happen to her soul after that moment when the “Windows fai[l]” and she cannot “see to see.”
4. The “Windows failed” right at the moment of the speaker's death, after which she "could not see to see." Based on these lines, the windows are a metaphor for her eyes or vision. Because the speaker has up to this point described what is going on in her room, her sudden inability to do so suggests that she has lost her vision because she has died. This is an apt metaphor because people often describe eyes as the “windows to the soul.” Since this poem is concerned with the spiritual aspect of death, it makes sense that Dickinson would use this metaphor.
5. There is a specific contrast that Thomas establishes in his directions to the audience of his poem. While he instructs them not to “go gentle into that good night,” he also says to “rage against the dying of the light.” Note that each imperative means to resist death, yet the second has a negative connotation in its description of a dimming light. Perhaps Thomas uses the first metaphor of the “good night” to reflect the audience’s skewed perspective. Since the speaker directly addresses his dying father at the end of the poem, one could infer that his father is feeling discouraged and views death as a sweet respite from sickness and suffering. Therefore, one could also infer that Thomas is critiquing the perspective that death is a peaceful slumber.
6. The apple-picking itself is a metaphor for life. The speaker explains all of the struggles and triumphs of harvesting apples, including the “apples [he] didn’t pick” or the “load on load of apples coming in.” The speaker is a skilled picker with a bountiful harvest, but he also let some apples fall to the ground. One might infer from this that apples represent experiences or opportunities in life. Based on this interpretation, lines 27–31 express the speaker’s desire for life to be over. While he once had a zest for life (“the great harvest I myself desired”), the speaker no longer thinks about anything but sleep—or the end of working so hard. In this way, life has become a struggle for the speaker, and he wants it to be over soon.