Emily Dickinson's Theme Of Death

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Reoccurring Theme of Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson There is a reoccurring theme of death in the poems of Emily Dickinson. This can be seen in poems such as “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died”, “My Life Has Stood A Loaded Gun,” “My Life Closed Twice Before It Closed,” “Heaven is What I Cannot Reach,” and “Death Sets A Thing Significant.” While some of Dickinson’s poems talk about death in an inviting and unafraid way others present the subject in tones of grief and sadness. Most of her poems that deal with death, depends on the continued life of the mind or at least up to the final moment. Dickinson also personifies death making it seem all the more real. To understand the poet’s fascination with …show more content…

In “I Heard A Fly Buzz – When I Died” death is shown as the end of life and what comes along with it. Many critics have claimed this poem was written shortly after her closest friend, and her second cousin passed away. In this poem the narrator is speaking from what seems to be her deathbed, it seems as though she is waiting for death to happen to her. This poem has to do a lot with the senses by using a lot of imagery. She shows how by the end she cannot open her eyes and see. The fly is represented as death since flies tend to fly near dead bodies and …show more content…

These are just some of her many poems, according to Nesteruk, death was very important to Emily Dickinson, out of over one thousand seven hundred poems she wrote, five hundred – six hundred are about death. “Death was her most powerful and best written work” (Nesteruk, 27) All the editors in The Emily Dickinson Journal 6.1 suggest death is a subject and mystery to be explored (37). This was said after the editors had taken a look at many of her poems. There is a reoccurring theme of death in the poems of Emily Dickinson. Many have interpreted them and found different solutions to why she wrote about death. While no one really knows why she wrote and was so fascinated by the theme of death, most connect her passion towards this topic to the many deaths she faced in her life. It makes it interesting as a reader to read so many different poems of death that don’t all have the same outcome and don’t all have the same mood, but instead all talk about death in different

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