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The Last Night That She Lived Figurative Language

Decent Essays

Death is so unpredictable, that it comes around before we even expect it. In Emily Dickinson’s poem, “The Last Night that She Lived” the speaker is trying to cope with a woman’s death. The speaker tries to suppress her feelings, but the speaker is filled with sadness and despair. The figurative language and diction provides access into the speaker’s feelings about the woman’s death.
The speaker did not expect a death to occur in her life. For example, in the 1st stanza, the speaker explains that her night was different when a dying woman became involved. The speaker was caught off guard and did not know how to react to the sudden death. It is also evident that the speaker is with a group of people emphasized by the word “Us” in line 3. The speaker describes her shock as well as the others’ feelings. The speaker and the others are starting to anticipate the woman’s death in the second stanza. The speaker was awestruck of this occurrence as it is shown that the speaker was new to this experience. The woman’s death has become the center of the speaker’s life and it is becoming more real to the speaker as the woman is slowly dying. …show more content…

In lines 11-16, the speaker is jealous that the others can go on living while the woman has to die alone. “That Others could exist while she must finish quite…” The speaker cannot accept the woman dying so soon and accuses the others of their happiness to live. The speaker becomes silent and so does the others as they are “Too jostled were our souls to speak”. The speaker feels broken and cannot express her words in a manner of truly accepting the woman’s death. The woman’s time finally comes as it is described as “At length the notice came”. The woman’s death is announced and the speaker is forced to confront the reality of the dying now dead woman in her

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