It is then he realizes that his father's window is different. The flickering light visible in all of the other rooms is not visible in his father's room because he is dead. Once the speaker realizes his father is dead, he can start to overcome the death. In the middle of the poem, images representing life and death show how the speaker overcomes his father's death. After experiencing the madness of death, the speaker transitions from not believing in the death to realizing that his father is leaving him.
Death still living represents the father's dead body, with the soul still alive within.
This thought causes a madness within the speaker because he realizes that his father's soul, oreverything he was, may remain within the corpse forever. This realization holds true because his father gave him life, so therefore his father will live on in his life. Conclusively, by overcoming his father's death, the speaker begins to shift back into a peaceful life. In the ending stanzas, Dickey uses images demonstrating life and death to show that the speaker returns to a peaceful life. This thought by the speaker shows how he want the other souls to act like his father, and migrate toward heaven unafraid.