Death in Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop for Death, I Heard A Fly Buzz-When I Died, and I Felt A Funeral In My Brain

The poem is written in free verse, offers no type of rhyme scheme, and in one long stanza. This contributes to

Throughout the poem, the author creates different tones using different types of figurative language and diction. The poet starts off the poem with the metaphor, “Although she feeds me

The poem begins with Aurora Leigh's observations of her aunt. "Her somewhat narrow forehead braided tight/ As if for taming

The speaker begins the first stanza of the poem by having the speaker introduce the reader to her location, a place where most family spend quality

One of the prevalent themes of Emily’s work is death. Since she wrote about her inner world and troubles, death as a theme could not be avoided. Emily Dickinson had to face the losing friends to death. Several deaths of family members, including her mother, father and a nephew helped contribute to the theme in her poetry. These events affected her health but she found a way to cope with the idea of death with her poetry. She developed an attitude towards death, seeing it as a transition from mortality to immortality. She accepted its inevitability and tried to make

statements, which sets up quite a logical tone. In the first line of her poem she states, "If ever two

Comparing and Contrasting Dickinson’s Poems, Because I Could Not Stop for Death and I Heard a Fly Buzz - When I Died

Another one of the most important aspects of a great poem, is it’s form. The author’s

The subject of death, including her own was a very prevalent theme in Emily Dickinson’s poems and letters. Some may find her preoccupation with death morbid, but this was not unusual for her time period. The mindset during Ms. Dickinson’s time was that of being prepared to die, in the 19th century people died of illness and accidents at an alarming rate, not to mention the Civil War had a high number of casualties, she also lived 15 years of her youth next to a cemetery. Dickinson’s view on death was never one of something to be feared she almost romanized death, in her poem “Because I Could not Stop for Death”, she actually personifies death while narrating from beyond the grave. In the first stanza she states “I could not stop for

The fourth line uses two verbs, which have internal rhyme to make the line flow

into the poem. The section of the poem that will be analyzed is the final ten lines (25-34). The

In some instances within literature, writers surprise readers by incorporating ideas that the reader may or may not expect. Within Emily Dickinson’s poem “I heard a Fly Buzz When I Died”, readers are introduced to a ghostly speaker that discusses the scene of their deathbed. Readers are exposed to many surprises throughout various aspects of the poem.

Next, "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" creates an illusion of a mind becoming unstable by describing the speaker's irrationality. The speaker's irrationality is represented in the third stanza and fourth stanza. It is evident that the speaker is beginning to hear voices, which is why she states "And then I heard them lift a Box" (line 9). The voices that the speaker is hearing are beginning to take over her mind as she expresses "And creak across my Soul," which gives the reader's the illusion of the speaker losing all control. All the problems that the speaker is experiencing as a result of her mental stability are beginning to take their toll, which is evident through the statement "Boots of Lead, again, Then Space - began to toll" (line 11-12). The speaker has now fallen into a state of irrationality, and her mind has suffered enough, and consequently thoughts of suicide plague the speaker. The statement "As all the Heavens were a Bell" represents the speaker's feelings that her mind has a chance of being at peace again if she ends her existing insanity, and she must therefore act upon her suicide thoughts (line 13). The speaker is trying to convince herself to follow through with her thoughts of suicide, as clearly indicated in her statement "Wrecked, solitary, here-." The speaker

Analysis of I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died and Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson