Emily Dickenson “519” poem depicts the process of a decaying body by using specific words and phrases. The poem gives a description of different stages a body goes through as it dies. The use of syntax helps create distance between the speaker and the dead body, the specific words and phrases also help in creating an eery, cold tone. She becomes curious with death, she does not see the body as a person who she is grieving for, and instead the body just becomes a decaying frozen river bank.
Because of uncertainty, many people have tried to explain to the living what lies after death, yet the sad reality is that no one truly knows what’s beyond mortality. Phillis Wheatley try to explain her interpretation of death and her poem title, “a funeral poem on the death of C. E. An infant of 12 months”. Wheatley’s metaphoric description of Heaven transforms the literary meaning of the word from a place into an abstract concept of the mental faculties of her mind. Wheatley also reveals to The Reader through her poem that she is experiencing the five stages of grief.
Whitman and Dickinson share the theme of death in their work, while Whitman decides to speak of death in a more realistic point of view, Dickinson speaks of the theme in a more conceptual one. In Whitman’s poems, he likes to have a more empathic view of individuals and their ways of living. For example, in Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, the poet talks about not just of himself, but all human beings, and of how mankind works into the world and the life of it. Even though the poem mostly talks about life and the happiness of it, Whitman describes also that life itself has its ending, and that is the theme of death. For Dickinson, she is the complete opposite of happiness.
Her description has become positive, as if death has released her from the vicious cyclic pattern. Additionally, usage of metaphors such as “sun streaks were high on the wall by now, and the light was growing soft in the barn”, signify that all hope left with her soul. The diction of “soft” also implies her innocence and readers experience sympathy for her fate. Before she died, the phrase “writhed to be free” was used. This may refer to her ensnarement within the vicious cycle and her desire to escape it- however, only death could free her.
Then in the last stanza, she uses asyndeton to describe everybody who has died. Of course, all these words she uses are positively connotated words. The list of words also shows that no matter who the person is they will go “down into the darkness”. The speaker's choice of words helps define the tones that are in the
The person she was in the beginning was now destroyed. She may not technically be dead but who she was as a person is gone so she might as well be. I was able to notice this when reading the poem because I, too, feel like a part of me is gone. I have definitely
With a close reading of Emily Dickinson’s poem 764, ‘My Life Had Stood – A Loaded Gun’ and poem 320, ‘There’s a certain Slant of Light’ I will be comparing and contrasting both poem in terms of the metre, language and themes that can be seen in both and others that are opposite to one another. The main aspects of Emily Dickinson’s poetry is the varying length of each poem, unusual capitalism throughout each, the variant of word choices and the slant or approximate rhyme. I choose poem 320 to compare to poem 764 because while it has similar aspects and themes it is in Dickinson’s ‘Death’ category rather than the ‘Poetic-Self’ category that poem 764 belongs too. ‘My Life Stood Still – A loaded Gun’ is written in common metre, which is popular
Emily Dickinson had multiple views on death. At first she was in love with the peaceful, gentle side of death, but that all changed when she lost her everything, her parents to death. The significance is that Romanticism is a diverse thing and it can be shaped a formed to the writers likings, but it will only have an effect if the reader interprets the poem in the same
Though largely unknown until after her death, Emily Dickinson was one of the most prolific poets of the 1800’s. Her melancholy, metaphoric poems sum up the emotions of her constricted and shy life. Many of her poems, such as her poem number 512, deal with moments of emotions breaking out. 512 contains somber imagery to convey the complex meaning that often human souls, and the humans themselves, break away from their anchored position, for better or for worse.
The theme of this poem “Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers (216)” from Emily Dickinson talks about life after death. Emily Dickinson does not really go directly to the subject but she lets the reader find out what she means by her words. At the first stanza of the poem, where she mentioned sleep it means death. She used the word sleep because it is what fits the imagery of the poem. Also, the part which says “untouched by morning and untouched by noon” (Dickinson 216) sounds like a casket or tomb since the poem is about death.
The poem that stood out the most while reading this assortment of Emily Dickinson poems, was her poem numbered 656/520. This poem used imagery in numerous ways throughout in order to show the audience the important themes and the overall meaning of this work of literature. The poem’s main theme was about a walk on the beach that the poet encountered in the early morning. Although the poem is about a beach it can also give the audience contextual clues into other aspects of life.
But me personally I don 't think this is the exact thoughts of the author. I see it a Dickinson putting her perspective into a character whose main ambition is to see. Also in the poem
The second version of Dickinson’s poem 124 directly revolves around the topic of death. The word “sleep” (720) in the first stanza is a euphemism for death and “chamber” (720) is a euphemism for a casket. The chambers being depicted as Alabaster, the ghostly color of deceased people’s skin, further solidifies the notion that Dickinson is addressing despite it not being explicitly stated. The poet’s exploration of the concept of death leads her to Biblical allusions. The use of the word “resurrection” (720) could be a reference towards Jesus Christ’s resurrection three days after his crucifixion.
The poem is narrated by the voice of the dead. The text is related in a very personal manner, the poem being
In the end of the poem she finally answers her rhetorical question about what the dead feel and comes to the conclusion that even blessing them is useless, for they cannot hear when she says, “They refuse / to be blessed, throat eye, and knucklebone” (16). They have no voice so they cannot speak, they have no sight so they cannot see, and they have no touch so they cannot feel. Following the
