In the McFarlane and Temple anthology Blue Light Clear Atoms, many poets suggest that human experience is too full of hardship to be worth celebrating. This was apparent for Emily Dickinson, Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali, Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal, Johns Keats and Les Murray. All of these poets, to some extend, have reflected their ideas and feelings about their own life in some of their poems. I found, however, that they give no indication that there was anything to celebrate, or be happy about.

Emily Dickinson is a prime example of a poet suggesting that human experience is too full of hardship to be worth celebrating. Dickinson is renowned for her many poems about death, dying and mourning for those lost, and refusing to celebrate life and her own experiences. This is showcased in an untitled poem, which begins with the following:

I felt a Funeral, in my...