Poem Analysis : ' Are You Digging On My Grave '

She is somewhat prepared to meet her demise. Although the tone of the poem is mainly calm, it does change as the speaker becomes closer to death. It is also very ironic because the speaker is referring to death in blithesome imagery. “We paused before a house that seemed a swelling of the ground the roof was scarcely visible the cornice in the Ground “ (5.1-4) the speaker refers to her grave as her home. The fact that she characterizes her grave as her home shows how comfortable she is with the idea of death. In the first three stanzas the poem is very relaxed. The usage of words such as “kindly” (1.2), “slowly” (2.1) and “civility” (2.8) give off an attitude of comfort. Furthermore in the 4th stanza the reader can recognize the speaker growing cautious as she begins to question her life and what exactly are the intentions of her companion. As the poem reaches the last stanzas the tone shifts from the once calm and casual tone to a more sad and serious resonance. The speaker is coming to the realization of her inevitable destiny.

The idea of graves representing memory is introduced in Part I of the collection within the poem “Graveyard Blues”. The final stanza of the poem says, “I wander now among the names of the dead: My mother’s name, stone pillow for my head” (8). First, while the word grave does not appear within this line, it is heavily implied by the speaker using her mother’s name as a stone pillow. The reader can deduce that this line is referring to a gravestone as when one thinks of a gravestone they usually picture an upright slab of rock with the name of the deceased engraved within it, and both of these elements are emphasized within this line. The main way that this line alludes to personal

Death is a controversial and sensitive subject. When discussing death, several questions come to mind about what happens in our afterlife, such as: where do you go and what do you see? Emily Dickinson is a poet who explores her curiosity of death and the afterlife through her creative writing ability. She displays different views on death by writing two contrasting poems: one of a softer side and another of a more ridged and scary side. When looking at dissimilar observations of death it can be seen how private and special it is; it is also understood that death is inevitable so coping with it can be taken in different ways. Emily Dickinson’s poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” show both

To begin, the speaker of the poem “Thou famished grave” presents a resentful and aggressive attitude towards death. The poem, addressed to a “ famished grave” (1), personifies a grave as a starving beast that can “roar” (2), “gnaw” (3), and has “dismal jaws” (7). This represents death in a negative way because the description of the beast make it seem unpleasant and to be feared. Furthermore, the poem includes words and phrases when addressing the grave that follow the theme of starvation, such as, “famished grave” (1), “Gnaw thine own sides, fast on” (3), and “I cannot starve thee out: I am thy prey” which emphasizes that the beast of death is starving to take someone’s life. This animal-like aggressiveness adds to the already negative image of the beast. This imagery also shows how the speakers thinks of death since it comes from her words which shows that she sees death in a very negative way. Due to this, the speaker is angry and does not want to give death what it wants, which is to take someone’s life. Additionally, although death is something normally feared, the speaker shows that she is not fearful by saying “I have no fear / of thy dark project” (3-4) when speaking to the grave. She expresses that she does not want to die and her “heart is set / On living” (4-5), which explains her resentfulness towards death. She also understands that death is inevitable as she says, “I cannot starve thee out: I am thy prey / And thou shalt have me; but I dare defend / That I can stave thee off” (6-8). This shows that even though she knows that she will one day die, she still doesn’t want to give death what it wants and will fight as long as she can

“Afraid! Of whom am I afraid? Not Death – for who is He?” (F345). Dickinson, on the other hand, was not shaken by the thought of death, but rather welcomed it. Dickinson’s poetry not only portrayed death as nothing to fear, but it also counterbalanced society’s disdain for death. In one of Dickinson’s most popular poems, she writes “Because I could not stop for death- he kindly stopped for me” (F479). Culture typically sees death as an unwelcome end that everyone must face, but her poetry depicts death as being kind enough to halt its progress to accommodate her. Why is Emily Dickinson’s poetry so in love with death? Death is the only reliable constant (Ottlinger, 42). “All but Death, Can be adjusted Dynasties repaired – Systems – settled in the Sockets – Citadels – dissolved – Wastes of Lives – resown with Colors By Succeeding Springs – Death – unto itself – Exception – is exempt from Change -” (F789). Perhaps the harshest aspect of her poetry’s death is that after it has taken another soul, life moves on simply

Bryant uses phrases such as “stern agony,” “breathless darkness,” “eternal resting place,” and “silent halls of death” to strike fear in the reader. These various phrases also apply a crucial tone to the poem. Death is a dark and distressing part of life. “The all-beholding sun shall see no more / in all his course.” (171). In these lines Bryant states that once man is complete with his course of life, he will no longer see light. This known fact raids a sense of fear of death. This next quotation states that people who die and buried will end in the same burial place, which is the ground. “Thou shalt lie down / with patriarchs of the infant world-with kings, / the powerful of the earth-the wise, the good, / fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, / all in one might sepulcher.” As previously stated, Bryant describes all people as equals. He states that everyone has the same burial place. The ground is the place all dead bodies proceed to after death. The visual form of these words arouses a sense of sadness. Throughout the poem Bryant changes the tone to state although death is a dark part of life people should enjoy life until death calls them. “So live, that when thy summons come to join / the innumerable caravan.” (172). This line supports the point of living life until death calls. Throughout the poem, Bryant uses pathos to elaborate on the elements of death.

Death is the concern in of both Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into That Goodnight,” and Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. Moreover, while these two poets use similar themes in their works, the execution and tone of their respective pieces could not be more antithetical. More to the point, Thomas’ poem paints death and oblivion as something deserving of fear and dread, and even though dying is an immutable fact in our world, man will always feel the need to have, “Rage, Rage against the dying of the light”. However, Dickinson does not let the fear of death consume her, so much so, that in her poem she embraces death as nothing less than a gentleman, who in her own words “kindly stopped for me”. At the end of it all, Dylan Thomas’ poem is a loud boisterous proclamation about the desperation of man to hold on to life and to leave something behind but ultimately realizing they cannot, while Dickinson’s is a quiet reflection about the cyclical nature of life and death and the peace the end brings.

Emily Dickinson concentrates many of her poems on the theme of death, predominantly her own. These “poems about death confront its grim reality with honesty, humor, curiosity, and above all a refusal to be comforted (“Emily Dickinson 1830-1886” 1659). While this was not an out of the ordinary topic during the American Romantic era, Dickinson seemed near obsessive in her focus. Additionally, Dickinson seems questionable in her thoughts on religion, another theme popular during the American Romantic era. Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for death” and “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” both explicitly examine the concept of death, the afterlife, and the author’s obsession with the melancholy.

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

In addition to burying their dead, most people take time to remember the ones they have lost. Grief from losing a loved one can make a person lose focus on living a healthy and good life. In Mary Elizabeth Frye’s poem “Do Not Stand By My Grave and Weep”, the voice from beyond speaks to his

Although “Mountain Graveyard” lacks that sense of imagery that is clearly shown throughout Updike’s “Dog’s Death”, both poets ultimately are still able to evoke emotions of death and pass that theme along in their poems. These two poems definitely share their similarities and differences. The choice of words that Updike uses helps draw a picture in the reader’s head of what is going on; by “lie down forever”(Updike 8), Updike really meant the dog was slowly dying. Updike’s use of syntax throughout the story helps the reader relate to how the family feels about the death of their dog. The reader can imagine what is going on at this point in the poem.

She turns the point of view of the poem and asks the reader some questions. These questions have a tone of negativity and she has a sense of unfulfillment by asking “what else should I have done” and asking the question that “if everything dies at last and too soon”. This line has a connotative meaning which can conclude that the animal she connected with the most likely died or that she is afraid of death and is depressed. This is supported later on in the poem where she writes a question of what the reader “should do with their wild and precious life”. This level of unfulfillment comes back as she wishes to motivate the reader to go out and follow their dreams because death creeps up on you. The death theme at the end brings in the aspects of nature as whole and that everything

Once one realizes that Emily Dickinson is talking about a stone burial vault in "Because I could not stop for Death," an image that expands the metaphoric power of the poem, one can appreciate

In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death “ (448), the speaker of the poem is a woman who relates about a situation after her death. The speaker personifies death as a polite and considerate gentleman who takes her in a carriage for a romantic journey; however, at the end of this poem, she finishes her expedition realizing that she has died many years ago.

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)”.