Death Observed Through Literature: An Assessment of Death in the Writings of Lucretius Carus, Theodore Roethke and Walt Whitman

A close examination on what it means to die by looking at the different works of literature by Lucretius Carus, Theodore Roethke, and Walt Whitman. Each poet described differing perspectives on death that range from the expiration of body, mind and soul, to death regarded as the beginning of a different state of existence. Even the latter was contrasted by these authors as one considered the renewed state as continued by the legacy left behind, while another perceived death as glory in God and victorious in death. Yet, despite their differences each author attempted to quell the fear of death.