Analysis Of It Was Not Death For I Stood Up

In the poem “It was not death, for I stood up…” by Emily Dickinson, Dickinson portrays a deeply personal depression, a depression in which her mind and emotions are in a state of chaos and hopelessness. The depression is so overwhelming that she cannot even understand its causes and must seek answers to move beyond her current state. So deep is her depression that she even avoids naming it, relying instead on the use of “it” without a clear referent. Perhaps because she is unsure of what her feelings are, she never uses the word grief, anguish or some other direct “name” for her state of mind. Although she is not clear on the reason for her depression, the reader can feel and understand her emotions through the descriptions she uses. Unhappiness and death are a common theme in Dickinson’s poems, and in this particular poem, it is the search for understanding those themes that is important to the poet. The poem consists of six stanzas, each one a quatrain. In the first three stanzas, each quatrain consists of two couplets in a consistent pattern of an eight syllable first line followed by a line of six syllables. The formality of this structure adds to the solemnity of the topic and the poet’s inability to understand her state. Emily Dickinson uses images of darkness and death to express the hopelessness she feels and to seek understanding of her anguished and chaotic state of mind.

In the beginning of the poem, Dickinson continuously repeats the phrase “It was not” before expressing her emotion. Her use of parallelism adds rhythm to her lines allowing the reader to have a smoother understanding and provides emphasis on what she is trying to express. It is significant that Dickinson uses a negative parallel construction in the fi...

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... stuck at ‘midnight’ and are going to be in infinite darkness unless she finds the cause.

“It was not death, for I stood up…”, draws us into a world of depression that could only be expressed through poetry. In the face of internal—and external—questions about loneliness and self-loathing, Dickinson’s poem is a moving testament that laments these particular states of emotion and despair. One cannot explain nor comprehend the depth of how she feels. Her images of darkness and death, as well as her specific metaphors and poetic devices allows the reader to enter her chaotic state of mind. Although she concedes the impossibility of comprehending her emotions, through her writing, the reader can understand her confusion, hopelessness and anguish. If we also know depression, we cannot find solace in her words, but we can rest a little knowing that we are not alone.