Emily Dickinson 519 Summary

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. The combination of words and syntax create a very vivid and unpleasant image of a rotting body. In line five she describes, “The Forehead copied Stone--…” The odd comparison to the stone, helps the reader understand how the forehead of the dying person feels. Thus,

She is distancing herself from the dead body and ignoring the fact that it is a person who just died. She then compares the fingers to ice by stating, “The Fingers grew too cold To ache – and like a Skater’s Brook--” We see the “Skater’s Brook” representing the fingers and sharp skate blades are slowly scraping on the fingers. Consequently, giving off a feel of “ache” and pain. The person becomes an object, a source of entertainment; she is more curious instead of being sad over this death. In almost every line of the poem there is a hyphen as if she needs to take a break, to think about and analyze every decomposing part of the body, making sure not to leave any detail out. She also compares the person eyes to being frozen by describing, “The busy eyes –