'Some Keep The Sabbath Going To Church'

As Wendy Martin says “the poem leaves the reader with painful impression of a woman in her mid-fifties, who having lost her domestic comforts is left to struggle with despair. Although her loss is mitigated by the promise of the greater rewards of heaven, the experience is deeply tragic.” (75)

While growing up with her father, her religion was forced upon her, as for their punishment the children were sentenced to “the verse”, in which they were required to right out one hundred lines direct from the bible by memory. She doesn’t seem to enjoy the idea of faith, but there is no doubt that she realizes it’s

The ensuing line states, “He kindly stopped for me” (Line 2). From this, the reader could possibly deduce that the narrator was glad to see death. Dickinson was known throughout her life to have been oddly fascinated with death and immortality, so it’s not out of the question to assume that this fascination was reflected in the narrator’s personality and was why death was welcomed. However, a more likely conclusion is that Dickinson was merely being ironic. Death is ominous as it is a leap into the unknown; we simply cannot fathom the eternity of afterlife. Taking us without consent from our lives (which we already have no power over), and thrusting us into an incomprehensible eternity is not exactly a kind act to commit, thus irony was used in this case. This further strengthens the idea that our lives are out of our control because with or without consent, death will choose to take a life whenever he pleases.

Finally in the final stanza of the poem, Dickinson remembers the horses in which she was being taken away when she died. The horses seem to be taking her into Eternity, basically an afterlife.

“She even thinks that up in heaven”, the word heaven is said to be one of the holiest place possible, available to people of spirituality, goodness, devotion, faith, and other values. What about classes in heaven? The author believes that racism is still a problem in heaven, because why else would she think that up? There is a separation of class, poor, and color. The poem is taking us back to a time when slavery was an issue. When whites where waited on and did not have to worry about anything.

The distance that is created bleeds into the idea of the nonacceptance of outsiders into the church. Anyone who seems to be different from the specific outline of the perfect person is automatically cast out by the congregation, never 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

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson portray God as Distant in their written work. Whitman, in his Poem “A Noiseless Patient Spider” give the reader this idea of a distant God along with Emily Dickinson in her Poem “I know that He Exists”. After reading and closely analyzing the selections, there is plenty of evidence that humanity is striving for a connection with God but that God reserves himself and keeps distance from our daily lives almost to the point of questioning his existence. First, Whitman portrays God as distant and humans trying to establish a mental connection with him throughout his poem a noiseless patient spider. He uses a spider shooting its web as a symbolic meaning of the souls of humans seeking for that relationship with God.

Throughout "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church", the sense of privation can be felt, and you can tell that along with other things, Dickinson enjoyed a more private life. Richard Wilbur also mentions her more private life in his writing of “On Dickinson’s Sense of Privation”, and he clarifies that she would choose to stay away from the outside world even the more enjoyable parts of it, and keep it at a “physical remove.” This could be a source of influence in writing “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church”, in the sense that she would prefer to shut the world out including going to church, and stay inside where she felt more

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.

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.”

way is better but rather that her way is just as good as the way of

This is symbolic of her looking at death as a new beginning as opposed to a sad ending. There is a feeling of disappointment as she thinks that she is going towards eternity but she just ends up viewing the “House that Seemed a Swelling of the Ground” and then centuries later, reflects upon her journey towards and eternity she didn’t witness. To Dickinson death was not something to be afraid of but to rather embrace and accept because it was inevitable, yet as in her life ends up disappointed because death leads to nothingness.

In the first stanza she simply states that just because one can’t see or have never seen something doesn’t mean that it can’t or doesn’t exist. That being said, Dickinson then says that she has not ever “spoken with God” or visited heaven in the third pair of lines (Dickinson 1273). The final set of lines says that she is “certain of the spot” (Dickinson 1273). This second stanza clearly confirms that she is confident of her place in heaven. Dickinson believes in all of these things even though she hasn’t observed any of them. (Benfey 25) This particular poem shows of her assurance of God and heaven.

Larkin first begins his poem by empathizing with atheists and viewing the church through their eyes. When the boy sneaks into the church, one can tell how indifferent and almost disgusted he is towards the building based on his descriptions. He points out how it is just “another church: