1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述）

death has been an everlasting topic. especially for poets, death always remains an inevitable theme. all kinds of images of death are created. the thesis aims to figure out the puzzle of death by means of comparing and analyzing the negative and positive death images, so as to carry out the mission of life.

everyone might has been bothered by death. lots of poets, from home and abroad, had left their footprint on the way to look for the truth of death. recently an increasing number of researches were carried out to interpret thanatopsis in literary works.

m schererrath, wrote in images of death as perspectives in a life crisis that images of death are reflections of one’s own attitude to life, and stressed that their meaning should never be underestimated. death image in divine meditations of john donne by dini zhang and dingming wang, pointed out that different people hold different opinions and attitudes towards death according to their world views and believes. in interpretation of the image “death” in lawrence’s the ship of death, liming ding discussed the relationship between death and religion, death and social reality from language, image, and intention, so as to master the thoughts of lawrence. in death and immortality: the everlasting themes by xiaochuan ren, the themes of death and eternity in emily dickinson’s poems were meticulously analyzed.

there were also studies which analyzed death image from the aspect of artistic conveyance. in on death theme and artistic transmission of emily dickinson’s poetry, tan kai wrote that her poetry was famous for the individuality in her writing. in another paper, death narative: metaphor and metonymy in dickinson’s poetry, libo li wrote that defamiliarization effect of the use of metaphor and metonymy reflected the poet’s pursue for eternity.

the theme of death is an inevitable knot for anyone occupied with literature. the poet’s suicide always occurs. in the poets of new poetry and images of death, the author lu xi tried to explore its poetic meaning by some typical case and generalization, and then set up the correct values. he wrote that the death image can be classified into positive and negative ones, and the former was of poetic significance while the latter was misleading.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

This thesis aims to make a comparative analysis of negative death image and positive death images, so as to figure out the deeper meaning of death, and arouse our sense of mission of life. By selecting several typical examples, the negative and positive death images are to be unfolded in details. Part One is to introduce the puzzle of death. The negative death images tend to reflect the sufferings and changeable life of the poet. The poets had to be faced with death. They lingered and struggled in the woods of death to find ways out. Through this process they could touch death in their flesh, and could achieve higher comprehension about life. Part Two is to describe positive death images, with which the poets could take the initiative to approach death. Death is never a terrible thing. On the contrary, by decoding it they can get closer to the truth of life and the God. They embraced death and eventually got revival. Part Three tried to combine the negative and positive death images, so as to find out the missions of life. Unavoidably, death comes to everyone; luckily, it can be chosen how to die. The human life is a journey, and we are but sojourner. It is of no use crying over the destined outcome, remembering that what truly matters is the invaluable experience.

3. 研究计划与安排

before 26th, december settlement of the title

before 25th, february submission of the outline

before 25th, april submission of the first draft

4. 参考文献（12篇以上）

[1]alotaibi, f. “the burden of the mystery”: keats’ reflections on religion and death[j]. studies in literature and language,2015,11(4):18-24.

[2]atkinson, j.m the day of shelly’s death: the poetry and ethnography of grief[j]. anthropological quarterly, 2014, 87(2): 563-568.

[3]burtt, e.h. love and death: the warp and woof of poetry[j]. the wilson journal of ornithology, 2014, 126(4): 784-784.