The Perception Of Death In Emily Dickinson's Poetry

In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death,” the narrator describes an experience that occurred involving a journey with death. The poem begins with the narrator painting a visual image of her experience with death, “He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves… And Immortality”

In Because I Could Not Stop For Death, Emily Dickinson presents her profound view of life after death and compares it to the human understanding of death. There is a distinction between what is considered death and Dickinson's view of death. Death is often seen as something unwanted, unwelcomed, but for Dickinson, death comes as a friend, “he kindly stopped for me.”(408, lines 2) Dickinson views death as understanding and kind, for she would have not stopped for death, in the way that death stopped for her. There is a definite new view of the meaning of death in Dickinson's poem, which takes the idea of accepting death to a profound extent. Through this human understanding is expanded and the readers are caused to

The subject of death occurs prominently throughout Dickinson’s poems. This morbid preoccupation might have been caused by her poor health and also the romanticization of death during her time. Traditionally, religion views death as a release from life, thus contemplating the reward of eternal immortality. Religion is another vastly explored topic in Dickinson’s works. Her spirituality is not clear (although she did attend church) but she expresses puritan traits of asceticism and isolation, although from her poems it is obvious that Dickinson is not fearful of God.

Death, dying, and various associated mysteries are common themes in Emily Dickinson’s writings. Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death,” published in 1862, delves further into the seemingly unanswerable questions of what death is and what life after death is like. Various faiths provide different answers, yet no one is certain about what is right and what is wrong. The author states, “Because I could not stop for Death –/He kindly stopped for me –,” in lines 1 to 2 of the poem. In these lines, Dickinson begins by implying that the speaker of the poem is too caught up in responsibilities and duties to think about dying. The person who Dickinson is writing about is not yet ready to face death and wants to continue living life. Ultimately, however, the speaker has to leave this world to move to the next because death is waiting to ride away with the speaker. In this short quote, Dickinson uses a variety of strategies, such as the use of capitalization and personification, dashes, and concepts that readers are familiar with, to explain death and what it truly is to her. Emily Dickinson uses this poem to portray her view of life and death as a continuous and everlasting journey that is unique for each person, presenting death as a version of life through her various writing techniques.

Many people are afraid of death, but for Emily she seems to embrace it. Dickinson’s use of imagery created a better understanding for the reader of how the poet feels about death. She has compared it to a Sunset, showing a beautiful coming to end. Dickinson uses movement of thought in her poem when she describes centuries feeling shorter than days. Her mind seems to roam free and time goes by slow for her.

Death is something most people tend not to think about. When death is brought up most people have several questions like, what happens afterlife? where do you go? what do you see? Emily Dickson was obsessed with writing about death and love. She had a unique view when she explored her curiosity of death and what happens in the afterlife threw her imaginative writings. Dickinson examines death from many different viewpoints and carries her thoughts and feelings through her poetry. She makes death seem natural and unstoppable, but at the same time giving comfort that it is not the end of a soul’s journey. Dickinson could take her thoughts, belief’s, emotions and transform them into words then put them into a poem that was truly from her heart.

The subject of death, including her own was a very prevalent theme in Emily Dickinson’s poems and letters. Some may find her preoccupation with death morbid, but this was not unusual for her time period. The mindset during Ms. Dickinson’s time was that of being prepared to die, in the 19th century people died of illness and accidents at an alarming rate, not to mention the Civil War had a high number of casualties, she also lived 15 years of her youth next to a cemetery. Dickinson’s view on death was never one of something to be feared she almost romanized death, in her poem “Because I Could not Stop for Death”, she actually personifies death while narrating from beyond the grave. In the first stanza she states “I could not stop for

Emily Dickinson personified death in the poem “Because I could not stop for Death” by representing death as a person.

Emily Dickinson’s, “Because I Could Not Stop From Death.” portrays themes of love, death, self-identity, and immortality. In her poem, Dickinson uses themes of immortality, mortality, and death. The central idea of this poem is about death, which depicts it as a kind gentleman taking the narrator on the journey to their grave, and eventually their afterlife. In the beginning of the poem, Dickinson ironically illustrates the journey of the narrator traveling to their own grave as relaxed, calm, and familiar. As the poem continues, the tone of the poem changes to a dark and nostalgic one. The audience will understand Dickinson’s perception of death in the poem, through her emphasis on tone and literary devices.

Death is a mysterious, yet frequently occurring topic in Emily Dickson’s poetry. Due to her introverted and isolated personality, Dickinson tended to write poems that included themes of death and immortality. In Death is a Dialogue Between, Dickinson illustrates the dispute between Death and a Spirit. In contrast to other American poets, Dickinson’s unique style of punctuation, formatting, as well as themes of mortality and death distinguished her from her contemporaries.

Emily Dickinson was born in a time when not many women involved themselves in poetry or any form of intellectual capability. Despite this, she was such a wonderful poet that her poetry rivaled Whitman’s. Of course, she was never able to rival him because she chose not to publish her poetry in her lifetime. Once the world saw her poetry, however, it was shocked by the literary genius who had lived in seclusion for a good majority of her life. Her style is very distinguishable through it is excessive but purposeful punctuation and 8-6-8-6 rhyme that matches church songs and patriotic songs like “Amazing Grace” and “Glory to God on High.” The church influenced more than her style, however, as much of her subject matter pertains to her unorthodox beliefs. Other subjects include hope and sometimes humor, but her ideas on death are both very interesting and complicated. Dickinson does not make light of death, but she uses her poems as her diary to record her thoughts on death. She moves rapidly from thinking death is passive to thinking it is an amazing honor, but she also thinks of it in a terrified sense. Emily Dickinson’s views on death are uncertain, she varies between finding death casual, positive and romantic, and negative in a series of several poems

In the course of two years Emily Dickinson had written three poems on death and each of these poems they all seem to give three different takes on how one experiences death. Emily Dickinson was a woman who made her Christian faith the main focus of her work especially when it came to her poems that had all been written on death. In christianity it is believed that once you die you either go to Heaven or Hell based on how you been living your life. Dickson’s views had remained pretty consistent when it come to what happens to you after you are already deceased which highlighted in her poems. We can also see that she was sure to organized her work in a way that had kept you reading in order to unravel the overall messages based on her

Discussing the concept of death within Emily Dickinson 's seemingly innumerable poems is a daunting task. Albeit, a task that serves as an eye opening look into the human understanding of dying and all its nuances. Dickinson 's penchant for writing about death likely steams from the way she often encountered death in her own life. From losing both of her parents and other important familial figures to living through the civil war; there was no shortage of mortality that Dickson couldn 't write about. One of her most notable poems is number 465, or “I heard a fly buzz – when I died”. The opening line itself

Dickinson manages to make death something to look forward to but also to look scary but also something to wait for. In this stanza, Dickinson shows how impending death is: “It made no Signal, nor demurred,/ But dropped like Adamant.” Without option or fight a person can die willing or not. Dickinson shows a progression of the views on death, some being her desire find out what happens after death, while others glorify her views and some make death fearful. But all these perspectives on death make the act of dying seem unattainable. Death always seems to be out of reach and uncontrollable. It is evident that in Dickinson’s poems, she is fascinated with death and the complications of it. Yet, Dickinson has yet to write a poem of her beliefs that are not religiously affiliated of what happens after death. Her fascination of dying is what makes her emotions around death so

In any poem Emily Dickinson poem they reveal that death is her principal subject. For the topics related to many other she has referred to in her other poems. Most poems touch on subject of religion, even though she wrote some about religion without death. Even Though, what Keats and Whitman wrote were death-haunted but not as few as Emily Dickinson. In Dickinson’s time there was a high mortality rate in the adolescent which have led to frequent deaths in homes. This contributed to her fixation with death, as well as her withdrawal from the world, her anger over the lack to find love, and her doubts about achievement when she dies. Emily was often criticized for being morbid in her interest in death however, readers today tend to be impressed with her sensitive and imaginative of the subject of death. Emily has most centered her poems on death and religion which can be divided in four categories. One those focusing on death as a possible extinction, those dramatizing the question of whether the soul survives death, those asserting a firm faith in immortality, and those directly treating God’s concern with people's lives and destinies.