Emily Dickinson Poem 465 Analysis

In her poem, #465, Emily Dickinson’s speaker allows the reader to experience an ironic reversal of conventional expectation of the moment of death in the mid-1800s, as the speaker finds nothing but an eerie darkness at the end of her life. Although the author’s speaker reflects upon her life from beyond the grave, she remembers her final moments in the still room and suggests death is not as grandiose as anticipated. In fact, the speaker recalls the room, “like the Stillness in the Air — / Between the Heaves of Storm” (3-4). Here, the speaker compares the aura of the room in which she is dying to the calmness before a large storm. The speaker anticipates her death to be a monumental event (whereas she ascends to heaven or some form of afterlife).

Specifically, as her friends and family stand around her deathbed, “The Eyes around — had wrung them dry — / And Breaths were gathering firm” (5-6). Clearly, the speaker illustrates how the people in this room await her death by only focusing on parts such as “Eyes” and “Breaths.” The speaker concentrates on the mourners’ lack of tears and the way they anxiously hold their breaths (as the speaker will soon pass). This displays the speaker’s memories of what she deems noticeable. Dickinson’s synecdoche portrays the emotional setting of the speaker’s still room. Although the mourners have ceased crying, they accept the idea that the speaker will spiritually travel to an afterlife. In the mid-1800s, Christianity dominated religious viewpoints. With the belief the speaker’s soul will travel to heaven or hell, the mourners watch her body to see if they could view her moment of grace. At this time, a popular idea was that it was possible to see whether a soul went to heaven or hell by the way the deceased body twitched. The mourners watch the speaker carefully as to see the purity of her soul. Additionally, the speaker acknowledges the potential for an afterlife. The speaker waits for “the King / [to] be witnessed — in the Room” (7-8). Surely, this “King” is an allusion to God or Jesus, presuming the speaker is of Christian faith. The speaker presumes her king will come and claim

For one thing, as the fly buzzes over the speaker it flies with an “uncertain stumbling Buzz” (13). To enumerate, the fly— being a metaphor for the triviality of death— moves in an unsure way. The symbolic movement of the fly demonstrates how life after death is unknown, not guaranteed, and unexplainable. The speaker simply passes away; there is no choir of angels or the fires of hell. While it is uncertain what happens to her soul (contrasting the mindset of mid-1800s Christianity), it is clear the speaker does not find the heaven she expects. Chiefly, as the fly soars above her head, the speaker closes her eyes and “could not see to see” (16). Again, after the life fades from her body, the speaker loses her physical senses and mere darkness envelops her. Her loss of sight also relates to her lack of spiritual enlightenment. During the time Dickinson wrote this poem, Christians believed in revelation upon entering the gates of heaven. The speaker gains no further knowledge nor is able to view the world around her; her life just unceremoniously