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The theme of death in Dickinson poems
The theme of death in Dickinson poems
The theme of death in Dickinson poems
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Death— an inevitable part of the human life cycle. Some may fear it, some may refuse to think about it, and some may even pursue the idea of nonexistence. Civilizations dating back centuries have pondered relentlessly on the question of death, creating religions that offer the possibility of an afterlife to provide comfort and relieve the angst some may have to the inexplicable thought of not existing. However, Emily Dickinson was not easily forged into blind belief, as she remained a skeptic of the church throughout her adult years. Instead of conforming to the religious-based life that most people turned to during her lifetime, Dickinson probed the questions constantly, coming up with her own possibilities for the afterlife. After Dickinson …show more content…
witnessed a morbid “decade of deaths” in the 1880’s, the problem of death and the afterlife consumed Dickinson’s poetry; as a result, Dickinson poses three major possibilities in the outcome of death— immortality, nothingness, and an area for which the soul to communicate— as means of explaining the inevitable unknown. Emily Dickinson, recognized as one of the most intimate poets of the 19th century, was consumed by the idea of death and the unforeseeable events beyond the mysterious horizon, which resulted from her constant exposure to death and her lack of faith (Juhasz 77). Born on December 10th, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, Dickinson belonged to a comfortable upper-class family that consisted of many leading male members of the Amherst society (Janet 27).
Her upbringing was divided between a strict education and the domestic duties that burdened a woman living in the 1800’s (28). During Dickinson's later years of education at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, Dickinson wrote that she was one of the few students who resisted conforming to the widespread Christian Revivalism that swept through the region. Dickinson had intentions other than being “good” (29). Her lack of faith indisputably affected her writing, since she explored options for death other than immortality, which was the widely held belief of the time. Dickinson once expressed concern about her faltering belief: “To lose one's faith-- surpass/ The loss of an Estate-- / Because Estates can be/ Replenished, —faith cannot” (“To Lose One’s Faith”). This lack of faith soon morphed into an intellectual curiosity hat became the forefront of her poems. Soon after her time at Mount Holyoke, Dickinson decided to terminate her schooling and immerse herself in her domestic duties. (Not, however, before being coined the “school wit”.) Having more time to be alone, Dickinson embraced her imagination, almost akin to an inquisitive child. By the end of the 1860’s, Emily Dickinson began to take her passion for poetry to a more serious
and mature level (28). Two decades later, however, Dickinson suffered a series of devastating losses of close friends and family members: among them were Charles Wadsworth, Judge Otis P. Lord, Helen Hunt, her nephew, and her mother. Out of all of the losses, the death of her nephew Gibb in 1883 had one of the most severe effects on her health, as she developed a “nervous prostration”. Dickinson’s behavior became so abnormal from her previous self that her sister began describing her as “delicate”. As physicians attempted to assist Dickinson in her nausea and mental exhaustion, they struggled severely as a result of her reclusive nature (“Dickinson and Death”). The losses that Dickinson experienced through the harsh decade pushed her to think more intensely about the nature of death. Her reclusiveness allowed ample time to ponder on such questions. For Dickinson, speaking through poetry became essential in her life— her “salvation and surrogate”. Poetry finally gave her an opportunity to explore and reflect upon the world that was occurring around her (Juhasz 77).
Exposing the Hypocrisy of Religion in Emily Dickinson’s Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church
“Although Emily Dickinson is known as one of America’s best and most beloved poets, her extraordinary talent was not recognized until after her death” (Kort 1). Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she spent most of her life with her younger sister, older brother, semi-invalid mother, and domineering father in the house that her prominent family owned. As a child, she was curious and was considered a bright student and a voracious reader. She graduated from Amherst Academy in 1847, and attended a female seminary for a year, which she quitted as she considered that “’I [she] am [was] standing alone in rebellion [against becoming an ‘established Christian’].’” (Kort 1) and was homesick. Afterwards, she excluded herself from having a social life, as she took most of the house’s domestic responsibilities, and began writing; she only left Massachusetts once. During the rest of her life, she wrote prolifically by retreating to her room as soon as she could. Her works were influenced ...
Emily Dickinson was an intricate and contradictory figure who moved from a reverent faith in God to a deep suspicion of him in her works. (Sherwood 3) Through her own intentional choice she was, in her lifetime, considered peculiar. Despite different people and groups trying to influence her, she resisted making a public confession of faith to Christ and the Church. (Sherwood 10) She wanted to establish her own wanted to establish her own individuality and, in doing so, turned to poetry. (Benfey 27) Dickinson’s poems were a sort of channel for her feelings and an “exploration” of her faith (Benfey 27).
Emily Dickinson is one of the great visionary poets of nineteenth century America. In her lifetime, she composed more poems than most modern Americans will even read in their lifetimes. Dickinson is still praised today, and she continues to be taught in schools, read for pleasure, and studied for research and criticism. Since she stayed inside her house for most of her life, and many of her poems were not discovered until after her death, Dickinson was uninvolved in the publication process of her poetry. This means that every Dickinson poem in print today is just a guess—an assumption of what the author wanted on the page. As a result, Dickinson maintains an aura of mystery as a writer. However, this mystery is often overshadowed by a more prevalent notion of Dickinson as an eccentric recluse or a madwoman. Of course, it is difficult to give one label to Dickinson and expect that label to summarize her entire life. Certainly she was a complex woman who could not accurately be described with one sentence or phrase. Her poems are unique and quite interestingly composed—just looking at them on the page is pleasurable—and it may very well prove useful to examine the author when reading her poems. Understanding Dickinson may lead to a better interpretation of the poems, a better appreciation of her life’s work. What is not useful, however, is reading her poems while looking back at the one sentence summary of Dickinson’s life.
Emily Dickinson was born December 10th, 1830 in her family home on main street in Amherst, Massachusetts to her two parents Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson. The homestead in which she was born was a family home owned by her grandparents who, soon after her sister’s birth in 1833, sold it out of the family. The Dickinson’s held residence in the home as tenants for the next seven years. Once her father’s political career took off, around the age she was nine, they moved to, and bought a new house in the same town. Dickinson was very close to her siblings, her older brother Austin and younger sister Lavinia. She had a strong attachment to her home and spent a lot of her time doing domestic duties such as baking and gardening. Dickinson also had good schooling experiences of a girl in the early nineteenth century. She started out her education in an Amherst district school, then from there she attended Amherst Academy with her sister for about seven years. At this school it is said that she was an extraordinary student with very unique writing talent. From there she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for a year in 1847. this year was the longest she had spent away from home. In her youth, Dickinson displayed a social s...
Emily Dickinson is one of the most well known poets of her time. Though her life was outwardly uneventful, what went on inside her house behind closed doors is unbelievable. After her father died she met Reverend Charles Wadsworth. She soon came to regard him as one of her most trusted friends, and she created in his image the “lover'; whom she was never to know except in her imagination. It is also said that it was around 1812 when he was removed to San Fransico that she began her withdrawal from society. During this time she began to write many of her poems. She wrote mainly in private, guarding all of her poems from all but a few select friends. She did not write for fame, but instead as a way of expressing her feelings. In her lifetime only six of her poems were even printed; none of which had her consent. It was not until her death of Brights Disease in May of 1862, that many of her poems were even read (Chelsea House of Library Criticism 2837). Thus proving that the analysis on Emily Dickinson’s poetry is some of the most emotionally felt works of the nineteenth century.
The famous well-known poet, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Growing up, she was busy with schooling, religious activities, gardening, baking, and exploring nature. Her family was well known in Massachusetts; her dad was a member of the governor’s cabinet and a US Congressman. In 1840, she attended Amherst Academy. At Amherst Academy, she was an excellent student. Many said she caught much attention and was very original in the way she presented herself. Dickinson’s poetry has a great amount of scientific vocabulary and she gained most of her knowledge about it at this academy. Seven years later, she enrolled in Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. At Mount Holyoke, she was academically successful and was very involved. Like most institutions at the time, Mount Holyoke believed that the students’ religious lives were part of responsibility. Dickinson refused to take part of the school’s Christian evangelical efforts. She had not given up on the claims of Christ, but didn’t think it was an important matter.
Emily Dickinson had a fascination with death and mortality throughout her life as a writer. She wrote many poems that discussed what it means not only to die, but to be dead. According to personal letters, Dickinson seems to have remained agnostic about the existence of life after death. In a letter written to Mrs. J. G. Holland, Emily implied that the presence of death alone is what makes people feel the need for heaven: “If roses had not faded, and frosts had never come, and one had not fallen here and there whom I could not waken, there were no need of other Heaven than the one below.” (Bianchi 83). Even though she was not particularly religious, she was still drawn to the mystery of the afterlife. Her poetry is often contemplative of the effect or tone that death creates, such as the silence, decay, and feeling of hopelessness. In the poem “I died for beauty,” Dickinson expresses the effect that death has on one's identity and ability to impact the world for his or her ideals.
Although, Emily Dickinson physically isolated herself from the world she managed to maintain friendships by communicating through correspondence. Ironically, Dickinson’s poetry was collected and published after her death. Dickinson explores life and death in most of her poems by questioning the existence of God. Dickinson applies common human experiences as images to illustrate the connection from the personal level of the human being, to a universal level of faith and God. This can be seen in Dickinson’s Poem (I, 45).
Emily Dickinson was one of the greatest woman poets. She left us with numerous works that show us her secluded world. Like other major artists of nineteenth-century American introspection such as Emerson, Thoreau, and Melville, Dickinson makes poetic use of her vacillations between doubt and faith. The style of her first efforts was fairly conventional, but after years of practice she began to give room for experiments. Often written in the meter of hymns, her poems dealt not only with issues of death, faith and immortality, but with nature, domesticity, and the power and limits of language.
Emily Dickinson became legendary for her preoccupation with death. All her poems contain stanzas focusing on loss or loneliness, but the most striking ones talk particularly about death, specifically her own death and her own afterlife. Her fascination with the morose gives her poems a rare quality, and gives us insight into a mind we know very little about. What we do know is that Dickinson’s father left her a small amount of money when she was young. This allowed her to spend her time writing and lamenting, instead of seeking out a husband or a profession. Eventually, she limited her outside activities to going to church. In her early twenties, she began prayed and worshipped on her own. This final step to total seclusion clearly fueled her obsession with death, and with investigating the idea of an afterlife. In “Because I could not stop for Death”, Dickinson rides in a carriage with the personification of Death, showing the constant presence of death in her life. Because it has become so familiar, death is no longer a frightening presence, but a comforting companion. Despite this, Dickinson is still not above fear, showing that nothing is static and even the most resolute person is truly sure of anything. This point is further proven in “I heard a Fly buzz”, where a fly disrupts the last moment of Dickinson’s life. The fly is a symbol of death, and of uncertainty, because though it represents something certain—her impending death—it flies around unsure with a “stumbling buzz”. This again illustrates the changing nature of life, and even death. “This World is not Conclusion” is Dickinson’s swan song on the subject of afterlife. She confirms all her previous statements, but in a more r...
the human race, in addition to doing it in the name of her own sanity.
Normally, one doesn’t think about death, yet Emily’s approach to death is similar to the approach to immortality. My viewpoint is that Emily construes her belief in a soul that does not die but lives on till eternity. “The idea of immortality is confronted with the fact of physical disintegration. We are not told what to think; we are told to look at the situation,” (Tate 26). According to Dickinson’s words, he slowly drove, he knew no haste (5-6).
Dickinson was unique and the “exception” in creating a private relationship with her self and her soul. In “Emily Dickinson and Popular Culture”, David S. Reynolds, a new historicism critic, wrote that it 's no surprise that the majority of Dickinson 's poetry was produced between 1858-1866, “It was a period of extreme consciousness about proliferation of varied women 's role in American culture.” It was a time where women were actively searching for more “literary” ways of self expression” (Reynolds 25). Dickinson was able to express her ideas and beliefs as a woman, something that was scandalous during this time period.
How can a strong, hearty man, and a somewhat sickly, isolated woman share very similar ideals? How could such a stark contrast of persons both have the same interpretations of life? Emily Dickinson and Ralph Waldo Emerson were very similar, and despite Dickinson’s very isolated life, she knew Emerson and his ideals very well. Due to this, some of her poetry reflects his transcendental beliefs, including Non-conformity, importance of nature, and simplifying life. Down to her core, she was very similar to Emerson, wanting to live a simple life, and a love for literature, and she most greatly reflects her transcendental beliefs in “How happy is the little Stone”, “There’s a certain Slant of light”, and “Much Madness is divinest Sense-”.