Emily Dickinson Metaphors

Death is inevitable; it should not be feared but instead accepted, and this is the main idea and theme explored in Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death.” In the poem, Death is personified as a gentleman who “kindly stopped [stops] for me [her]” (Dickinson 2), “slowly drove [drives] … know[ing] no haste” (Dickinson 5), and with whom she stops at a “house that seemed [seems]/ A swelling of the ground” (Dickinson 17-18) or in other words, her grave. To begin the poem, the fact that Death is represented as “if he were a human being” (Evans 15) implies that it is humane. This contributes to the idea that death is not to fear. Later on, it can be concluded that this person has control over her as she describes how she “had put away / My [her] labor, and my [her] leisure too, / for his civility” (Dickinson 6-8), which implies that “everything that had once seemed so important and distracting now recedes in importance” (Evans 17), and how he “slowly drove [drives] … know[ing] no haste” (Dickinson 5), which gives “no clear sense of the underlying purpose of the journey or its ultimate destination” (Evans 16) and thus implies that only Death knows the path and destination of the journey. Both of these examples contribute to the fact that Death completely controls a person against its will and that it is inevitable. Finally when “we [they] paused before a house that seemed / A swelling of the ground” (Dickinson

“I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” is more ridged and scary when it comes to explaining death. The narrator is looking at death from the afterlife while seeing the more frightening side of death. This poem’s setting stays entirely in the room. In the beginning of the poem, the fly is disturbing the “stillness in the room” (Belasco 1331). The stillness in the room means she is dying alone with no family or friends. The start of the poem explains how there was no peace in the death by comparing it to a “storm.” It can be felt that the speaker is waiting for her death as they can hear the fly buzz like when you hear a clock tick as you wait for time to pass. Since the character has to wait for her departure, it shows she is experiencing a slow death. The fly buzzing plays an important role because it shows the advancement of death. Dickinson shows the progression of death by enhancing the last sense noticed before death when she focuses on hearing the smallest details in her surroundings. As the narrator is nearing her death, she can hear things that the normal average individual wouldn't notice. The fly distracts the narrator’s final moments and upsets her peaceful death. The earthly fly in the end stands between the narrator and the calm spiritual aspect of death. In the

The two poems are similar in their corresponding feeling of dread for death. Using diction,

Emily Dickinson is well-known due to the fact that she uses an immense amount of death in her poetry; she is also known as being reclusive and death-obsessed. Although other poets don’t typically use large amounts of death in his or her own poetry, Dickinson decided to take her own path in order to get her point across; meanwhile, some found her obsession with death rather disturbing. On the other hand, death could be interpreted through various forms of symbolism. For example, death can symbolize things such as equality, religion, and journeys. Additionally, death can be used to express the loss of a loved one or even an internal loss of yourself, such as despair. Her poems about death

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

One literary element she often used in her poetry is imagery which are words that are visually descriptive or figurative language. By using imagery Dickinson made readers imagine how death is like for her, she also creates tension to describe how intense that moment was. “I could not see to see (line 20)”. would be classified as imagery because it gives readers an idea about her emotions at that exact moment. Another literary element is mood. The mood is something Dickinson focuses on, and tries to make clear. Depressing would count as the mood, because she says certain distressing things about how she feels toward the subject of death. One last example of a literary element Dickinson used in her poem is simile. A simile is when you compare two things using the words “like” or “as”. The line “The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air (lines 2-3)” would count as a simile because she is comparing two alike things, death and air. She’s describing how silent she thinks death really is, maybe even peaceful.

Lyrical poetry is often used for the poet to express their emotions and tend to be written in a first-person perspective as a result. Because Dickinson never wrote in hopes of her poems being seen by the public, her poems are theorized to be a reflection of her thoughts. This is strengthened by poem 788 (709), “Publication – is the Auction”, where she deems it arrogant to publish when poems come from God. She says that “Thought belong to Him who gave it” (Dickson, “Publication – is the Auction”, 1) and it is not the right of the poets to sell that knowledge. Therefore, it’s clear that she is against publishing and this norm to conform to what society wants. As a result, it’s only reasonable to believe that her unpublished poems are a reflection of her thoughts. However, it is unknown as to what those thoughts were, due to the vagueness of her poems. She never outright explains what they mean and any answers that the poem may give, it just raises more questions. In 476 (712), “Because I could not stop for Death”, an explanation is never given as to what Death was a metaphor for and why she found it necessary to refer to what she passed by in the

“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” death is approached as a an easy topic to talk about.

Emily Dickinson's Feelings About Death Revealed in Her Poem, Because I could not stop for Death

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

     Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous authors in American History, and a good amount of that can be attributed to her uniqueness in writing. In Emily Dickinson's poem 'Because I could not stop for Death,' she characterizes her overarching theme of Death differently than it is usually described through the poetic devices of irony, imagery, symbolism, and word choice.

There are differences in these two poems such as the setting and where the narrator went after he/she died. In ?Because I could not stop for Death?, the setting is outside where it is cool. I know this because the poets write, ?We slowly drove-,? and ?The dews drew quivering and chill-? In the poem, ?I heard a Fly buzz when I died?, the setting is in a warm and moist room. I know this because the poet writes, ??The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air-?. The narrator in ?Because I could not stop for Death?, died and had an after life where death is leading him/her. The poets tells us this, ?Since then-tis Centuries- and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses Heads Were toward Eternity?. The narrator in the poem, ?I heard a Fly buzz when I died?, did not have an after life. I know this because the poet writes, ?And when the Windows failed- and then I could not see to see?. These are a few differences between the two poems.

Two of Emily Dickinson’s poems, “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” and “Because I could not stop for Death” are both written about life’s stopping point, death. Although the poems are written by the same poet, both poems view death in a different manner. Between the two poems, one views death as having an everlasting life while the other anticipates everlasting life, only to realize it does not exist. While both poems are about death, both poems also illustrate that the outcome of death is a mysterious experience that can only be speculated upon with the anticipation of everlasting life.

Emily Dickinson once said, “Dying is a wild night and a new road.” Some people welcome death with open arms while others cower in fear when confronted in the arms of death. Through the use of ambiguity, metaphors, personification and paradoxes Emily Dickinson still gives readers a sense of vagueness on how she feels about dying. Emily Dickinson inventively expresses the nature of death in the poems, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)”, “I Heard a fly Buzz—When I Died—(465)“ and “Because I could not stop for Death—(712)”.