Romantic poetry is often associated with emphasis on imagination, great focus on nature as a source of poets’ inspiration, expression of individuality, and importance of childhood. This turns out particularly true if we think about the poetic legacy of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Dickinson’s emphasis on imagination, typical for the poets of Romanticism, is best expressed in her poem “Because I could not stop for Death,” where Death is personified as a handsome young man and the overall setting is afterlife. Whitman’s emphasis on imagination is linked to his bondage with nature and so, a kind of environmental imagination evolves, as seen in his poem “Whispers of Heavenly Death”.

In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death” all imagination revolves around the poetic persona’s relationship and moments with Death. Through a vast use of various literary devices the author forms a positive image of male Death in the audience in the first two stanzas. The very first think that unveils the specifics of Emily Dickinson’s imagination is humanized Death: Death is a name of a man, and the overall impression of the poem is that it narrates about two young people. There is a woman (the poetic persona) and a courteous gentleman, who in with impeccable manners “stops for her” and then invites her to go and have a pleasant ride with him in a carriage. The pleasantry of the upcoming ride is enhanced because the poet adds a highly desirable element to their romantic trip: Death and the persona are closely accompanied by Immortality. Again, Dickinson’s imagination invites us to visualize the scene the way as if there was some more gallant companion, under the name Immortality.

Further, in the poem (namely, in the second stanza) Dickinson develops her imaginative description of the ride with Death by continuing to ascribe purely human features to the character. Specifically, she says that Death does all things “kindly” or without haste. She even hints at her fascination with Death as with the man. This is evident in the following lines: “And I had put away/My labor and my leisure too, For his Civility (…).” Besides, capitalization of the words Carriage and Ourselves hints at the unity of the couple and the importance of riding in that particular carriage (this actually looks like a wedding ceremony). The intimacy of the whole scene is enhanced by the use of “just”. By her saying “just Ourselves”, the persona admits to enjoying a very pleasant and close company. Just to compare, in modern culture, the words “just you and me” are found in lots of popular songs that tell about love. Thus, Dickinson’s imagination pictures intimacy along with a deep bond, plus mutual love between the two people.

As for Whitman, in his poem “Whispers of Heavenly Death,” the author used environmental imagination to portray death. Death is depicted through personalization, but the descriptive language is all about nature rather than human intimacy or love bond. To illustrate, death is humanized, because he or she can whisper (“Whispers of heavenly death, mumur’d I hear”), her footsteps can be heard. Yet, the greatest effect in the poem is achieved by the use of environmental imagery: “night”, “mystical breezes,” “unseen rivers,” “great cloud-masses.” The metaphors make this imagery even more vivid: the night has a labial gossip, cloud-masses roll “mournfully” and “silently swelling and mixing,” a “far-off star” is “sadden’d” (lines 1-9). These linguistic pictures express the power of Whitman’s imagination: death is coming as a part of nature, of the rich, flowing, and harmonic world. Yet, in Whitman, the coming of death is not celebrated with awe as in Dickinson’s earlier discussed poem. Rather, it is an organic, but certainly sad, passing into afterlife (this is seen by the images of human tears, saddened star, and mournful cloud-masses).

In summary, whereas Dickinson and Whitman both demonstrate the power of imagination in their poems “Because I could not stop for Death” and “Whispers of Heavenly Death,” their imagery revolves around different motifs. Dickinson uses the motif of love and intimacy while Whitman explores the theme of nature and demonstrates a kind of environmental imagination.