An Insight Into Dickinson's Portrayal of Death

Emily Dickinson was a well-known poet of her time. She also introduced a new wayform of writing poetry. Emily Dickinson wasn’t the ‘typical’ child you would expect. Emily Dickinson had to overcome many loses and obstacles in her life to create the poetry that she is known for today.

In opposition to “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, Dickinson published her work of “I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I Died”. In this particular piece of literature, the author disbeliefs in an afterlife. In this poem, a woman is lying on bed with her family surrounding her, waiting for the woman to pass away. The woman, however, is anxiously waiting for “…the kings”, meaning an omnipotent being. Finally when the woman dies, her eyes or windows, as referred in the poem, “could not see to see “. When the woman passes away, she couldn’t see any angels or gods as she expected would be there, but instead, she is fluttered into nothingness. She isn’t traveling to an afterlife as she had expected to unlike in the poem of “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. The woman finds out that death is a simple end to everything.

This is symbolic of her looking at death as a new beginning as opposed to a sad ending. There is a feeling of disappointment as she thinks that she is going towards eternity but she just ends up viewing the “House that Seemed a Swelling of the Ground” and then centuries later, reflects upon her journey towards and eternity she didn’t witness. To Dickinson death was not something to be afraid of but to rather embrace and accept because it was inevitable, yet as in her life ends up disappointed because death leads to nothingness.

Emily Dickinson, a more calm writer, wrote about what she knew and what intrigued her. She used imagery from nature, religion, love, reality, and death in each of her poems. Using pathos, she writes her poems with strong satire which

            Emily Dickinson is an 1850s poet whose unique writing style was not formally recognized until after her death. Dickinson had a way of breaking all the rules, yet it brings her a long way in the end. Throughout her life she suffered a number of tragic events which she poured into her work. These works will eventually become famous. Dickinson wrote about relatable things that are still relevant today causing her fame to continue to grow.

"Emily Dickinson's stature as a writer soared from the first publication of her poems in their intended form. She is known for her poignant and compressed verse, which profoundly influenced the direction of 20th-century poetry. The strength of her literary voice, as well as her reclusive and eccentric life, contribute to the sense of Dickinson as an indelible American character who continues to be discussed today" (citation). The once misunderstood, shy, even crazy old lady nextdoor who never so much as stepped out from behind the doors of her modest home, cooped up in there all day doing Lord knows what has finally been brought under the light; now we know what a truly wonderful and gifted lady she

Through her poems Emily Dickinson has forced anyone who has ever read them to stop and think, to take a new perspective on both life, and death. Though death is emphasized as almost a great savior from a pitiful life; if you go and live your life to the fullest, you won’t have these “earthly pains” and will be able to embrace both life and death. I think that it the true message behind Emily Dickinson’s works as a whole. Looking at her personal life she wasn’t very outgoing, she didn’t have any friends; all she wanted to do was poetry.

To understand any poem by Emily Dickinson is a challenge. After reading this poem a few times, I decided that the only way to comment on it was to scan all the possible meanings of certain lines and words that Dickinson chose to use. This is my own interpretation of the poem, not to be confused with a definite idea of what Dickinson was trying to convey in her writing of "I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain" (280).

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.” This is a quote from one of the letters that Emily Dickinson wrote to T. W. Higginson during her lifetime. Dickinson wrote poetry for nearly thirty years; however, fewer than a dozen of them were published during her life. At her death, she left us with nearly two thousand poems to study, analyze, and enjoy. “Dickinson was a reclusive American poet. Unrecognized in her own time, Dickinson is known posthumously for her unusual use of form and syntax,” (biography.com). Although Emily Dickinson lived her life in seclusion, and the few things we know about her come from her family and her writing, she wrote thousands of interesting poems based on dozens of themes, and her unique writing style encourages

She embraces death and wished to marry him. The speaker and Death passe by the school, the fields of grain and the setting sun, which shows readers a different stage of her life. The school and children represent the speaker’s childhood. The fields of grain represent adulthood and repetition of daily life, and the setting sun represents old age and reminds us the closure period of the life as we grown old. These images define the stages of her life. Further in poem speaker shows how life can change as weather from bright and warm to dark and a cold. This is shown after the setting sun passed, and “The Dews drew quivering and Chill-”(Dickinson 14). Also, The author compares the liveliness of the children playing turns into the in activeness of the chilly night.This suggests that the journey is about to end. Moreover, the horse ride is the way God is waiting to

The poem starts out with Emily Dickinson very flatly stating that she is alive but she can only guess. Perhaps because life is so draining or boring that she cannot even feel anymore. She may only feel numbness or like she is dead on the inside but nonetheless she is alive. She then makes mention to morning glories, a flower that often symbolizes mortality because it blooms in the morning and fades in the evening.

Emily Dickinson wrote numerous poems about death. Two of these include “Because I could not Stop for Death written in 1863 and “I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I Died“ written in 1862. While both poems focus on the idea of death, they have different outlooks and portrayals of death. “Because I Could not Stop for Death” focuses primarily on events occurring after death including eternity and the afterlife while “I Heard a Fly Buzz- When I Died” accounts for the moments leading up to death and the one’s last moments.

Born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts (“A Timeline”), Emily Dickinson is a classic, female American poet most people are familiar with nowadays. However, if her name or works are unknown to some, they are missing out on poetry with a unique style and the ability to touch readers’ hearts by addressing themes about human nature. Since she was a keen observer of Amherst life, nature, and human passion (Byers and Bourgoin 541), it was easy for her to write about said themes. Besides that, Emily Dickinson’s use of themes such as death and mourning in her poetry is highly influenced by her own life experiences. Due to this, her poems become deeper and genuine, making it easier for readers to connect with her poetry.

Emily Dickinson did not give titles to her poetry, they are numbered. This is the first part of her poems that commands attention. At first it is not known what a particular poem is about, it needs to be read. A good portion of Dickinson’s work is centered on death. Everyone knows that death is unavoidable. Once something lives, it must die. There is only one real guarantee in life and that is death. Generally, death is feared due to the lack of knowledge or certainty of what happens when it occurs. Heaven, hell, purgatory, nothingness, reincarnation or any other explanation gives comfort or even anxiety in death. Even with the strongest beliefs death is still uncertain. Some of Emily Dickinson’s poems are solely about death and the emotions that fallow it. She creates a very vivid image with her words. Certainly on a level that anyone who has experienced death can understand. Three of her poems in “The Poems of Emily Dickinson” edited by R. W. Franklin, do this nicely. Both of these poems explain the emotions and what needs to be done after a death.

Emily Dickinson lived a relatively long, but somewhat troublesome life. Dickinson was born in 1830 in Massachusetts. She was not a very social person, in fact she secluded herself during the years of 1860 to 1865 (Vasanthi). During this time Emily Dickinson was a victim of “death like episodes which affected her psyche” and when reviewing letters sent to an important person in her life it became obvious that she suffered from a “psychic injury” that only got worse as time went on (Vasanthi). Her psychic injury or mental illness was reflected in some of her poetry. Poets who were not mentally ill did not usually write of death, and certainly not in such a pleasing manner as Dickinson did. Also, before her period of seclusion, she met a man, her editor, who is said to have been “the love of [her] life”, but he “moved to California” (Faulkner). This was a devastating point in Dickinson’s life and, actually, when she wrote the majority of her poetry.The period of time following his disappearance made for many poems about love written by Dickinson. Her current feelings and experiences were directly affecting her poetry.