Emily Dickinson's 'A Certain Slant of Light' Analysis Essay

Two literary pieces, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by, Dylan Thomas and Because I Could Not Stop for Death by, Emily Dickinson are both poems that discuss the topic of death. While there are some similarities and comparisons between the two poems, when it comes to the themes, both poets writing styles are quite different from one another which makes each poem unique. Thomas and Dickinson both use identical figurative language devices and other literature symbolisms as they explain their main themes which contrasts the differences to the concept of death. These distinct variations between poems are apparent in both the form, and how the choice of words is used in the poems. Dickinson and Thomas have presented two different ideas on the topic and concept of death. The poems are well distinguished literature devices, they share minor similarities and differences between each other and how they present the meaning of death to a toll.

    Figurative language plays a key role in the poem, as well. The best example is  The Morning after Death,  which sounds a lot like  mourning after death.  In fact,  mourning  could even replace  morning  and the poem would still make sense. Another example occurs in the second stanza, when Dickinson uses the words  sweeping  and  putting.   By using such cold, unfeeling words when describing matters of the heart, the author creates a numb, distant tone. She really means that after someone dies, one almost has to detach oneself from the feelings of love that once existed for the deceased.

A poet who challenged poetry’s role in religion, Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830. Although Dickinson’ was poetically prolific during her life, her work was neither published nor acclaimed until after her death in 1886. Similar to most poets, Emily Dickinson wrote about what she understood and what intrigued her. One of the major themes that Emily Dickinson often explored in her poems was the conflict between science with religion, specifically, her “individual struggle with God”. Many of her works describe defiance towards religion, because of how religion subjugates human identity. Dickinson is unique because unlike other religious poets who follow and encourage the path to God, she talks about challenging God’s dominion throughout her life, and refusing to submit to divine will at the cost of herself. In “There’s a certain Slant of Light”, Dickinson uses light that carries spiritual connotations to explore her relationship with God. Though the word “light” suggests weightlessness, Dickinson uses the word “light” as a heavy burden. Dickinson expresses her internal struggle with God who she views as subjugating human identity.

“I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean” (Socrates). What does it mean to be this type of poet? How can someone accomplish such success in poetry, the answer is just two words Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson spent a large portion of her life in isolation, not because she was forced to or because she was ill, Dickinson simply wanted to be alone and because of her isolation she became one of the greatest female poets of all time. Emily Dickinson set the bar high for other female poets and created some of the most renowned poems in the world. The two poems “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” and “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant” are drastically different poems that tell two different stories, but there are some aspects that cause them to be similar: Imagery, tone, and the statement that the two poems make.

Dickinson uses elements of nature to lay a harsh but true insight to our own inevitable deaths. That is, God has a plan and the world will continue to spin. The first stanza of the poem is clearly a snapshot of the fall months, this is extremely effective as we see the theme of death all around us annually. As the trees shed their leaves and the flowers wither away we can see beings die. Winter comes leaving a trail of destruction in it’s path, while in most places of the world the sun continues to rise right on schedule. This would have been even more noticeable in the 1800’s when Dickinson wrote the poem, as many would freeze and go hungry during the winter. Slowly as the weather gets warmer we start to see the ice and snow, that has just killed many plants, bugs, animals and so on, melt away. Even though the world is filled with these subtle hints at death “The Sun proceeds unmoved” (Dickinson, 6) meaning the world will go on, and Sun will again rise tomorrow. The indirect comparison between nature and death assists to provide a visual to this view.

We are immediately made aware at the beginning of the poem that there is nothing out of place about this day except that they lost a family member. Dickinson was letting it be known that while the rest of the world continued as usual, they sat there in a room watching one of their suffering family members take her last breath. Death makes life different somehow. As Dickinson states, “-this to Us Made Nature Different” (lines 3,4), she tells us that when her family member died it changed them. This poem shows the raw emotion of sadness and the effect of grief overtaken her in just 6 short stanzas.

(14, 18). During this poem, Dickinson wants us to simply see her version of a person's trip during death. The imagery is supposed to lead us into seeing what the author is describing.

Firstly, the repetition in the phrase “we passed” in the third stanza shows that the nature of humans is to go through different stages in life before death. Dickinson ends the third stanza with the line “We passed the Setting Sun” which is the last stage of life, death. This reveals that at the start, the first stage of life is to go through school, study and get educated. By the time humans grow up, mature, and grow old it is the setting sun; which means that life is almost over, the way the sunsets there is just a bit of sunlight left before nighttime (either rephrase the entire sentence or remove the highlighted part). Life is the same way; humans should not fear death because it is a normal stage of living. One of the main reasons Dickinson wrote this, is because she strongly believes that there is eternity and that afterlife does exist. She saw it as a glorious and exciting time because everyone would be in heaven. This view was influenced by her upbringing in a Christian home and was a Bible reader. Moreover, Dickinson refers to the grave as her house in the line, “We paused before a House that Seemed.” This exemplifies that Dickinson is very comfortable and pleased with the idea of death, leaving this life, and the afterlife. She experienced many family deaths in her lifetime, like her mother, father, and

Emily Dickinson also wrote plenty about nature, seeing as she was constantly around it rather than actual humans. Her views of nature vary from optimistic and intoxicating to frightening and threatening. In her poem “There’s a certain Slant of light”, she carries a holy and amazed mood throughout it. Using words like “Heavenly” and “Cathedral” support the holiness in the text. The narrator is amazed at the

When people think of Emily Dickinson, they think of a white dressed, ghostly woman hidden in the corridors of home, writing poem after poem. They do not think of the actual person Emily was. Emily Dickinson grew up in a rich, social, scholarly environment. She could have chosen many paths that would have led her to a completely different life, but because of circumstances, the social, high energy girl with a sense of humor became isolated by her own choice. Though Emily Dickinson’s depression is romanticized, sickness, social life, and death led her to seclusion and deep poems.

Dickinson's poem focuses on the speaker's relationship with death as being more complex than some might feel inclined to imagine one's connection with it. It appears that the poet wants her readers to acknowledge that death is imminent and that it is

     After evaluating my perception of The Last Night that She Lived, by Emily Dickinson. The message in this poem is we take life for granted and we don’t appreciate it until we are threatened with losing it. Emily used what seems to me as free verse with no apparent rhyme but alliteration at times. This is a Narrative poem that tells a story about a death of a young woman.

Have you ever wondered what it Feels like for someone that lived with their sight then became blind? Well Emily Dickinson did that in two of her poems. She made you imagine that you were the person that got your eye poked out and start to get used to living in the dark. These poems are called “We grow accustomed to the dark” and “Before I got my eye poked out.” Emily Dickinson lost her eye sight late in her life but wrote these two poems about living your life in the dark. These poems tells you that you will have to deal with problems living in the dark.

Emily Dickinson’s reclusive life was arguably a result of her proposed bi-polar disorder. This life and disorder unduly influenced the themes of her poetry. She chose not to associate herself with society and volumes of her poems, published posthumously, examine this idea as well as the themes of nature and death. The clearest examples of these themes are presented in the following analysis of just of few of her

In Emily Dickinson’s lyrical poem “There’s a certain slant of light” she describes a revelation that is experienced on cold “winter afternoons.” Further she goes to say that this revelation of self “oppresses, like the Heft of Cathedral Tunes” and causes “Heavenly Hurt”, yet does not scare for it is neither exterior nor permanent. This only leaves it to be an internal feeling, and according to Dickinson that is where all the “Meanings” lie. There’s no way for this feeling to be explained, all that is known is that it is the “Seal Despair”, and an “imperial affliction”. These descriptions have a rather powerful connotation in showing the oppressive nature of his sentiment. There is an official mark of despair and an imperial affliction