Analysis of Emily Dickinson's The Bustle in a House

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Analysis of Emily Dickinson's The Bustle in a House

The Bustle in a House is a poem by Emily Dickinson about the painful loss one feels after the death of a loved one. Dickinson was quite familiar with the kind of pain expressed in her poem. Her father, mother, nephew, and three close friends, all died within an eight-year period. It is no small wonder that a common theme in Dickinson s poetry is death. She uses many literary devices, including structure, imagery, figurative language, sound devices, and capitalization; to convey the hurt one experiences when a loved one passes on.

The structure of The Bustle in a House is very interesting. It is a short poem, only two stanzas long. Both stanzas are made up of a single sentence. With the exception of a lone dash at the end of the first stanza, and the period that ends the sentence, there is no punctuation. All of these factors add up to make the poem have a very brisk pace. The pace makes it seem that after death, one is supposed to just pick up and go on as usual.

Dickinson also uses imagery to add to the th...

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