Death To Emily Dickinson Essay, Research Paper
DeathEmily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. For her entire life she lived there, in her father’s home. Though her world was quite simple, it was also complex in its beauties and terrors. She found irony and ambiguity lurking in the simplest and commonest experiences. The material in her poetry ranged from what she experienced in and around her father’s home. During the time in which she lived, she experienced and witnessed death more often than we do today. In the nineteenth century, in which she lived, death was very prevalent for young people because they did not have the cures and immunizations that we have today. Death is a part of life that we all must live with sometime during our lives. When we realize we have lost someone near to us, we feel like we’re in another world and there are questions left unanswered. Emily Dickinson explains that feeling in poem #341,After great pain, a formal feeling comes-The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs-The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,And Yesterday, or Centuries before?Another part of life is trying to avoid death. Nobody wants to die no matter how old they are. Emily Dickinson explains this in poem #712 by saying, ” Because I could not stop for Death Smith 2-He kindly stopped for me-.” In reading this, she lets the reader know that death is inevitable, no matter how much you try to run from it. When people get old or they are sick and dying, they become like children all over again in their minds. They start to relive their youth in their thoughts. Dickinson reflects this in poem #712 by saying
We passed the School, where Children Strove, At Recess – in the Ring-We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain-We passed the setting Sun-When a person does die, it is customary for people to gather at the mourner’s home to show their sorrow in the time of bereavement. Whether people are there showing their respects or if they are there to help gather the belongings together of the decreased, Emily Dickinson explained the atmosphere of the home in poem #1078,The Bustle in a HouseThe Morning after deathIs solemnest of industriesEnacted upon Earth-When someone dies, we feel that putting his or her personal belongings away will help us get on with the grieving process. ” The Sweeping up the Heart/ And putting Love away,” (#1078) is Dickinson’s way of saying the same thing. When a person dies, we put their things Smith 3away and we don’t want to use them anymore. Another thing we do when a person dies is remembering the small thins they did, ” We noticed smallest things-/ Things overlooked before” (#1100). Emily Dickinson is one of America’s best poets. For a poet who worked in solitude and without criticism, her writing is provoking. The lyrics in her poems capture the particular moment and make you feel like you are there with her, seeing what she is seeing and feeling what she is feeling.