My Number (Billy Collins) vs. I had heard it's a fight (Edwin Denby)

These two separate poems, the first by Billy Collins and the second by Edwin Denby, both discuss the nature of death. Both poems outwardly personify the idea of death, describing it through its actions, but the most important concept to gather is the immediate distinction between the two works. Collins is able to personify death in way for the audience to fear it. This is shown repeatedly by the numerous questions asked throughout the poem: “Is Death miles away from this house / …or breathing down the neck of a lost hiker / in British Columbia?” (1-4), “Is he too busy making arrangements, / tampering with air brakes, / …Or is he stepping from a black car / parked at the dark end of a lane…?” (5-6, 11-12). It can be inferred that Billy Collins seems to be warning his audience about the danger and spontaneity of death; it is lurking behind every corner, ready to follow a single subject. Edwin Denby, on the other hand, has a different meaning in his poem.  Unlike Collins, Denby addresses death as a force to be reckoned with. In the second stanza, the speaker describes the “afternoon it touched [him] / It sneaked up like it was a sweet thrill / …Was it sweet!” (5-6, 9), but then goes on to add, “I decided it was bad, / Cut out the liquor, went to the gym, and did / What a man naturally does” (10-12). Instead of wondering when death will approach, like Collins emphasizes in his poem, Denby ponders over the excitement, the “thrill” of death that the speaker “can’t get over” (14), yet wishes to avoid. It appears that Denby has taken less of a critical approach towards death than Collins, where in the first poem the concept of death is terrifying and in the second it is quite different.  Instead, the excitement of death feels far more rewarding than merely waiting for it to knock on one’s door.