Emily Dickinson Woman

First, Emily Dickinson’s poetry1 continuously rejected society’s perception of death. As death approaches, the one entering eternity and those nearby are often scared

The late psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said: “The most beautiful people I’ve known are those who have known trials, have known struggles, have known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.” This inspirational quote suggests that adversity provides people with new opportunities and can drive people to improve their life. Adversity comes in numerous forms, such as emotional, physical, and financial. Individuals have a choice to learn from adversity or allow it to break their character. However, certain types of adversity, such as severe chronic conditions or diseases, do little to improve character and the human condition. Thus, all types of adversity, pain, and suffering are not beneficial, however, most work to improve an

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson is one of the best poets in America. She is known for her uncommon way of writing poetry. There was a great deal of problems going on in her life. She spent mostly her entire life living in her home and only left unless she needed to do so. Unlike other poets, she did not have any order to her writings. She just wrote what she was feeling. Her work was anonymously published and later became known after her death.

Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous American poets. She wrote many poems throughout her lifetime, but it was not until after her death that she became famous. She wrote about death and life, love and separation, and God. She wrote about topics like these because she was inspired by the experiences in her life. Throughout her life, she dealt with problems that caused her to seclude herself, wear only a while dress, and write poems. Many have questioned what caused her seclusion? What happened that was so devastating to make her want to be alone all the time? Why did she always wear white?

She suggests in the poem that it isn’t fair that the speaker gets to live, but this woman must die. This is presented in the third stanza when the speaker says,” And rooms were those to be alive, tomorrow were, a blame.” In the seventh stanza, the author in whole describes the amount of respect they have for their friend, carefully placing her head, and making the body look comfortable, and all in all hoping to make the death appear as peaceful as possible. This idea of respect can be related to guilt as for she is upset and feels guilty for why the speaker gets to live, and the only way to repay this guilt is to be as gentle and respectful to the woman’s last moments.

In her poem #465, Emily Dickinson’s speaker allow the reader to experience an ironic reversal of conventional expectations of the moment of death in the mid-1800s, as the speaker finds nothing but an eerie darkness at the end of her life.

Have you ever felt such deep feelings for someone? A feeling that words cannot even come close to expressing how you feel? In this poem, the author  answers the question about her love with “because” (Dickinson 2), never a concrete answer, to show that love is unexplainable.  “Why do I love” You, Sir? Written by Emily Dickinson.

The poem “Taking off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes” By Billy Collins, amplifies the conflict of Emily Dickinson’s inner feelings being revealed as a result of her poetry being published (Emily Dickinson wanted to keep her poetry private). The speaker is aware of this and he shows a lot respect for Dickinson and her poetry throughout the poem. Respect is shown by the speaker by constantly referring to Dickinson’s poems. The speaker references Dickinson’s work in a way that is easily noticed. The speaker preserves Dickinson’s more complex thoughts and feelings.

Also, the word “We” is used to start a line which causes the word be capitalized. The author has “We” capitalized to emphasize, again, that the focus is on the people still alive. Finally, the narrator admits that this death has caused a noticeable change when he/she says, “By this great light upon our Minds.” The “great light” is symbolizing the death guiding the focus of the people’s attention towards the typical subconscious thoughts in order to make them consciously processed in the people’s minds. The woman’s death becomes this guide because it places the people into a stressful situation and alertness is the first stage of stress response.

This section of the poem is one that gives a very sad and depressing tone. The section states that death is inevitable and everyone will face it. The tone sets a mood that is thoughtful. It really makes the reader step back and reflect on life. This can be shown by the author’s rather sadden view on aging.

Throughout the poem, she shows how death can be cordial yet unrelenting. Although death may seem frightening, this poem shows that it can be a calm and steady march onward to our next life. By dividing the poem into six stanzas, the speaker gives

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)”.

In this poem Dickinson makes the reader aware that death is an everyday event but can change the lives of the ones that are the closest to that person. When death becomes a reality the family seems to realize that the smaller things are very important, “We noticed the smaller things- Things overlooked before/ By this great light upon our Minds Italicized-as ‘twere” (lines 5,6,7,8). The things that everyday people do not slow down to see, become significant when the realization comes that there is someone that will not get to enjoy those same small things.

It is with the deep condolences that I must go. It may seem shocking to the living, but the dead are wise. The dead are free. There are freedoms not granted while living. Freedom denied to few; happiness. We think of happiness as things we can touch: money, people, cars — the tangibles; but really, it is something deep inside that bellies its way up. It's the millions of cells in the body, working together, screaming “ I’m alive. I’m alive, thank God all mighty, I’m alive.”Then you have the moments in between that reminds you that you are here. The wind in your face, the sound of waves. Most people get to feel the sun on their face and know what warmth feels like. A lucky few gets to smile with their whole heart and mean it. They get to wake up, eat, sleep, on their own accord; prisoner to everyone but themselves. They may hate their job, their relationship, but even within their man-created bondage, there’s a choice. But within humanity, duality must exist, it’s how the world balance itself.Ugly and pretty. Evil and good. Light and Dark. So the unlucky ones must exist, and they exist among you, suffering in silence, robbed of choice and reason. The unlucky ones exacerbate themselves trying to run back to normal; to feel happiness and everything in between. Normal is a dream deferred. But the unlucky ones love a good lie, and when they can no longer lie, they died.There are freedoms not granted while living. Freedom denied to many; life. Life and living are trains at the opposite side of a track, carrying passengers who are either filled with so much life that they have smiles to spare or they are filled with nothing but void, just containers for sadness. There are those alive but are not living; but more so, things, going through the motion. Neither here, nor there, just moving towards an inevitable fate. An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion, with the same speed, and the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

For this assignment, I will be analysing the literary text of Emily Dickinson’s 1861 poem, ‘I felt a funeral in my brain.’ Dickinson is known for unusual diction of unconventional punctuation, slant-rhyme and rhyme itself, as well as rare word choice, and imagery (Miller, 2007, pp.18) so I will be focusing particularly on sound patterning as my central framework, as it is most fitting to showcase my interpretation of the poem. However, I will be incorporating other relevant frameworks were appropriate.