The mysterious, and often ambiguous, nature of both beauty and truth long has puzzled those enticed by beauty's allure and by truth's intrigue. American poet, Emily Dickinson, strikingly approaches beauty and truth in her 1862 poem, "I died for Beauty – but was scarce" (449). Dickinson equates beauty with truth, ultimately suggesting that during one's mortal lifetime, the perfection offered by beauty and truth is impossible to obtain or even understand and that human connection, not attaining perfection, will bring solace and comfort to one's soul.
             Dickinson rather blatantly identifies beauty and truth as similar concepts through the poem's two speaking characters. The poem's narrating character claims to have died for beauty, while the character speaking with the narrator proclaims to have died for truth:
             I died for Beauty – but was scarce
             When One who died for Truth, was lain
             In an adjoining Room – (1-4)
             The placement of a character who died for beauty and a character who died for truth in adjoining rooms associates the two concepts. Additionally, the fact that each character died for beauty and truth, respectively, suggests a further similarity between the two concepts. Most notably about Dickinson's association between beauty and truth is their seemingly unobtainability to the poem's characters. The fact that each character died for beauty and truth suggests that each concept is unattainable. The death of the two characters symbolizes the inescapable imperfections that come with being human. True beauty, while difficult to determine due to its subjective nature, can reasonably be defined as a sort of perfect exquisiteness that appeals to one's senses. A certain and indisputable truth is also a type of perfection, because it is ultimate and faultless. Both beauty and truth are examples of perfection – a perfect...