Comparative Analysis of Poems by Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes Poetry is one of the most deeply personal forms of artistic expression because it involves the externalization of the poet‘s innermost thoughts, hopes, and fears. This process usually consists of several crucial elements that enable the poet to organize or structure what is being expressed in a manner that is memorable and sensuously appealing. Poetry uses language to explore various themes and paints word pictures with devices that include imagery and metaphor. In terms of definition, a theme represents the poem‘s subject matter or an idea the poet seeks to portray; imagery is an appeal to the senses through mental pictures; and metaphor is a figure of speech that makes an implied comparison between seemingly unlike objects. Three of America‘s most celebrated poets Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Robert Frost (1874-1963), and Langston Hughes (19021967) examined themes of life, death, and the human experience with vivid and masterful uses of imagery and metaphor that remain an informative creative blueprint on poetic selfexpression. Throughout their lives, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost suffered from periodic bouts of depression. Therefore, it is not surprising that the theme of death is featured in many of their poems. One of Dickinson‘s most imaginative poems, ‗I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died,‘ also known as poem #465, was written at the height of the Civil War. It metaphorically likens the process of death to an innocuous fly buzzing. In other words, instead of being a mysterious occurrence, it is a proces