Emily Dickinson Poetry Analysis

Emily Dickinson is one of America’s greatest and most original poets of all time. Emily would often challenge past poets. She would challenge poets such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. She would try to free expression from its at that time constraints. Emily created a new first person persona, it contained sharp eyed personas that could see the inescapable limitations of their societies. She helped pave a new age of poetry that would make the abstract tangible and define meaning without confining it. This poetry went almost unfound due to the fact she never shared them with anyone and was reclusive. Emily’s sister Lavinia Dickinson found all the poems she had written in a draw after she had died and about 4 years

The poem depicts a person who has died and death taking them to the afterlife. It is beautiful how she shows this concept by saying I could not wait for death but death waited for me. She shows her views on what the afterlife would be like. She depicts death taking you through the memories of you life as you pass on to the other side. The poem is a very sad topic but the overall feel of the poem is a happy golden feeling. It uses words not normally considered as dark but the overall theme is dark. Yet she is able to do so. This reason is what makes her poems so great. She can take a dark theme and make it seem happy. This poem also is a way to help rationalize death. Humans fear death so as a way to cope with it we rationalize this and Emily does this very well. She helps ease the fear of death as depicting him as a driver of a carriage who kindly stops for people to help them relive their life before they head into their next

This poem is about a person who is describing the moments before she died when she heard the fly buzz. The Speaker talks about The quietness of the room before she died as the quiet between two phases of a storm. The next stanza describes the people present at the deathbed and how they are all weak and weary and have given their final words. Then the speaker makes peace with their death then the fly comes in and interrupts the speakers peacefulness. The speaker says the fly seemed to blot out the light, and then all light ceased, leaving her conscious but utterly blinded. The poem is separated by a hyphen and doesn't flow well. This was done purposefully to give the effect that you are being interrupted by the fly. I felt a Funeral in my brain is another example about Dickinson's poetry about death. Emily is able to exactly describe this funeral. It is almost as if it is her own. She takes the point of view of a soul who is watching their own funeral. She uses this as a way to show her own views on death and what emotions she would feel. Emily Dickinson was a fantastic poet. She almost went undiscovered. She presented the world with new perspectives about life. She also helped people on the topic of death. She was one of the greatest of her time and her work will be remembered