I Died for Beauty by Emily Dickinson

I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth,--the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms.
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.

Beauty and truth are associated in this poem. Both the speaker and the man in the adjoining died but each died for a different cause. Although the two are in different rooms, they are “brethren” and “kinsmen.” To die for beauty is ridiculous and undignified. On the other hand, to die for truth is noble. From the first stanza, the speaker made it apparent that she and the man in the next room are two different kinds of people. However, in the next stanzas, they are “brethren” and “kinsmen.” Does that mean truth and beauty are the same? In definition, they are not. As reasons of death, they are not. However, they are the same in that they are would be obliterated by death. Both the speaker and the man are taken over by the moss crawling up to cover their lips and their names. The moss here is a symbol of nature, of which death is a part. The moss stops the speaker and the man from speaking and wipes out their identity. Humans are, thus, powerless against nature.