Emily Dickinson Use Metaphors In Some Keep The Sabbath Going To Church

Dickinson's bout with religious turmoil is quite evident in poem 1545; The Bible is an antique Volume-, in which she seems to be attacking the Puritan radicals such as Jonathan Edward. This poem gives almost a complete overview of the Bible, speaking of Eden, Satan, Judas, David, and also Sin. This poem lets us see why and also how this strict religious upbringing may have pushed her to become the `old spinster' as some may call her, or the woman with the disease of agoraphobia.

However, Dickinson’s poem is very different from Whitman’s in structure and language. In “324,” the speaker explains how they observe Sabbath, in nature rather than going to a service, when saying “With a Bobolink for a Chorister — / And an Orchard, for a Dome —” (lines 4-5). Dickinson, like Whitman, provides visual imagery; of a bird instead of the Church choir and an orchard instead of the “Dome,” which represents a church. In these lines, readers can envision the beautiful nature scene that the speaker treasures. Furthermore, as Whitman also did, Dickinson uses auditory imagery as the speaker explains further how the spend their Sabbath, “And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church, / Our little Sexton — sings” (lines 8-9). Here, the sounds of the Church’s bell is what the speaker traded for the charming bird’s song in their form of worship. Like Whitman, Dickinson uses imagery to illustrate to readers her preference for nature that connects her to God and religion, unlike for many others who choose to attend church. Moreover, in contrast to Whitman’s poem, Dickinson writes in an abcb rhyme scheme where the second and fourth lines rhyme and have a meter. To demonstrate, every even-numbered line rhymes; Home” and “Dome,” “Wings” and “sings,” “long” and “along.”

This provokes the readers' psyche of a lonesome, fragile individual, standing isolated at the end of an dark, treacherous road. This imagery is successfully used to illustrate a portrait of Dickinson, or even the individual reading the piece themselves, as they’re yearning for their new life, which right now is filled with darkness and sorrow. The poem is comprised of five stanzas, each consisting of four lines. The monotonous nature of the poem is nothing gleaming or eye catching, and this is purposely done for the conspicuous fact that sometimes, precious values and things you love are vaporized. With the abandonment of something important, the world does not stop revolving around you and seemingly mold itself for you. It will continue to revolve in the same way it always has for four and half billion years, but now only seeming to be filled with darkness, difficulty and

The narrator believes you do not have to attend church to be spiritual and that common practice can be done in a peaceful place such as the orchard in her yard. The last two lines of the poem state, “So instead of getting to Heaven, at last- / I’m going, all along” (Dickinson 639). I interpreted this as the long journey to heaven has become a huge part of her life. It is not just a look into the future, but a continuous look in the present. The symbols Dickinson uses in this poem are by far the highlight of this short piece of poetry. In the first stanza, a bobolink and orchard are used to replace things that modern churches value as sacred and holy. Those natural occurrences are used by Dickinson to show her love for nature. More examples of this are shown in the second stanza. The narrator uses her own “sexton” to call her holly time instead of a brass bell to call church service. This is important to analyze as yet another natural occurrence that highly defines the authors writing style.

In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Some keep the sabbath going to Church”, you can clearly see her opinion of religion and God. It seems like Dickinson likes the idea of religion, she just prefers to practice outside of the Church. For example in lines 2-4 following the central metaphor, she says “I keep it, staying at Home- /With a Bobolink for a Chorister- /And an orchard, for a Dome-”(Dickinson 2-4). In these lines she seems to find going out into nature to be more beneficial than a church. When Dickinson says “With a Bobolink for a Chorister”, you can see she prefers the sound of birds over the sound of singing from a member of the choir. And when she says “And an Orchard, for a Dome-”, it is clear that she prefers looking up and seeing trees rather than a dome of a chapel. In conclusion, I believe that Dickinson’s views on religion is positive, but she prefers to practice it out in nature.

She, growing up in a religious family, determined that religion was not the pathway for her and she would instead be the only influence on her life (Emily, no pag.). To the rest of New England, God was loving, caring, and a Father; however, her poetry reveals that to her, He was a mystical figure in the sky who oscillated back and forth from loving to harsh. Dickinson’s poetry often mocks the Bible, God, prayer, and church attendance. Her poetry’s is commonly irreverent, calling the Bible “an antique Volume – Written by faded Men At the suggestion of Holy Spectres - ” (F1577). Dickinson repeatedly mocks God calling Him “Burglar! Banker!” and sarcastically “Father!” (F39). In a short, three-lined poem, Dickinson jeers at the traditional, Christian phrase “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost—Amen.” Dickinson instead worships nature “In the name of the Bee – And of the Butterfly – And of the Breeze – Amen!” (F23). Although subtle, it reveals that she knows enough about religious ways to parody it in a satirical fashion. Dickinson again belittles the effectiveness and importance of prayer. “Of Course – I prayed – And did God Care? He cared as much as on the Air A Bird – had stamped her foot – And cried ‘Give Me’ - ” (F581). To “remain true to herself,” Dickinson belittled the importance of faithful church attendance ( Emily, no pag.). “Some keep the Sabbath going to

In lines 5 and 6, Dickinson uses an allusion to the road to where Jesus was born when she states, “The Road to Bethlehem." By this, Dickinson shows her knowledge of Christianity and she also capitalizes “He” to refer to Christ and “Boys” to refer to when he was young. In the last two lines, Dickinson describes how Christ had made everyone’s life better when he sacrificed his life. She states, “Was leveled” to refer to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and capitalizes “Billion Miles” to symbolize the long and stressful road people took before Christ died for their sins. She also uses a hyperbole when she states, “A rugged Billion Miles” to overstate how difficult life on Earth was. Dickinson uses a dash to show an ongoing thought and to show that the road that was referenced in line 8 is still going for people who haven't given their life over to

She appears to be irritated with the fact that she was labeled as something without having a choice; also, she was “[b]aptized, before, without the choice. . . [u]nto supremest name” (8,10). In poem 1732, she states that her life had already closed twice before it was close, but she is waiting to see if there is a third event ready to happen; however, “[p]arting is all we know of heaven,/ [a]nd all we need of hell (1,4,7-8). Dickinson mentions in Poem 324 how [s]ome keep the Sabbath going to church”, but she “keep[s] it, staying at [h]ome”; she talks about “[s]ome keep[ing] the Sabbath in Surplice. . . [but she] just wear[s her w]ings”, as well (1-2,5-6). She believes “instead of getting to Heaven, at last -/ [she’s] going, all along”, even without keeping the sabbath at church and without wearing surplice (11-12). Dickinson mentions in Poem 49 about how “[t]wice. . . [she] stood a beggar/ [b]efore the door of God” (3-4). Dickinson doesn’t necessarily put down religion, however, she doesn’t quite agree with parents who enforce religion upon their children due to the fact that she was once a child raised similar to that kind of lifestyle.

Throughout the poem, Dickinson employs repetition to show the cyclical experiences of the soul, hence to create an observant tone. At the beginning of the poem, the soul is going through her first stage of her cycle of experiences. The speaker refers to one of the three stages of the soul’s cycle when they voice, “The soul has bandaged moments” (Dickinson 1). The use of “moments” indicates there are multiple times where the soul experiences a distinct change in how certain events or actions are assessed, as well how the events or actions affect the soul, such as the soul feeling fearful during her bandaged moments. Therefore, the cyclical experiences of the soul expressed using repetition play into the observant tone of the poem, which is lengthened

A famous poet named Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830. She was well known for writing in quatrains and using slant rhyme in her poetry. Figurative language played a huge role in emphasizing the meaning of her poems, she also used dashes to highlight words. The poem “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died” mainly described her deathbed scene. She used imagery to describe how the room looked and how inaudible the room she occupied was, because she could hear a fly.

focusing the readers’ attention on a certain area of the text. When Emily Dickinson uses this

In one of my favorite poems by Emily Dickinson, ‘39’ or [49] published in 1858, she almost parallels the life of Job in the Bible who lost all he had, but because he was faithful all of his loss was restored; I like that there are so many ways to interpret the loss and blame in this very short poem; for example, her loss could be a loss of possession or a loss of a child because “in the sod” could refer to either to an actual plot of land with its crops and the possessions that would come with it or to burying deceased children; to be a beggar could mean that she is literally poor and landless, which would mean that she had no way to provide for herself, or that she had no children and prayed for them; when she says that angels “reimbursed

In the poem “Some keep the Sabbath going to church” there are many interpretations of the message Emily Dickson sends out. According to the poem “I keep it staying at home” (line 2). There are various meanings of this quote whether it is a deceiver of something or a statement of the truth. Everyone can take something different from the poems of Emily Dickson and turn into something that reflects on their life. She was truly a master writing her poems, but was it just poems or a message. Her poems are reflections of her life experiences and so many people can relate to these poems. It is proven in some literature authors tend to write about past life experiences that have made their mark. Authors in a sense make aware of these life lessons for the youth so they do not make the same mistakes the author once did. However, not all life lessons are necessarily bad. Emily Dickson is a writer of true passion that leaves her signature on history through her poems of life stories.

Although many of Emily Dickinson’s poems are short they carry many meaningful and sayings and ideas. The unique style of her poems has caused many to ponder at her works, but is nevertheless monumental. The length and the dashes used by Dickinson is what makes her poems so interesting an inspiring to read. In the poem “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church”, Dickinson uses dashes to emphasize her points.

Religious freedom is the United States first American freedom. It is essential to an individual’s spiritual life and their very own salvation. It is the freedom to share one’s faith and beliefs in their own way. Emily Dickinson’s poem “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,” expresses her own religious beliefs. The poem is a rejection of traditional religious behavior that takes place during her time. She sees religion as a private matter for the individual. The poem indicates that one does not have to attend church in accordance with society to show one’s faith and beliefs. She writes, “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church - / I keep it, staying at Home -.” Dickinson compares her home as a place to worship. The feeling one has to conform