The Speaker's Use Of Diction In Dickenson By Emily Dickinson

Dickenson’s use of diction creates figurative imagery that further reveals the manner in which the speaker’s attitude evolves. The word choice not only allows readers to mentally visualize the events but also to easily understand the speaker’s feelings that change throughout the poem. Although the word “infinite” (16) describes the speaker’s jealousy toward the woman, it also refers to the divine creator and His place of eternal happiness. The connotation associated with the word shows that the speaker believes in life after death, which clarifies why jealousy arose within her in the fourth stanza. She experiences a conflicting response because the woman grows closer to every believer’s ultimate goal: heaven. Moreover, the personification,

“Too jostled were Our Souls to speak” (19) illustrates the speaker’s feelings of trepidation that naturally form as the anticipation of the woman’s death heightens. Analyze more about personification. The speaker’s referral to “Our Souls” (19) also bolsters the connotation identified with “infinite” (16) in the previous stanza. Additionally, the speaker compares the woman’s death to “a Reed/ Bent to the Water, struggled scarce—” (22-23). This key simile depicts the woman’s tranquil transition from life to death. The word “consented,” (24) which immediately follows the comparison, only reinforces the idea that the woman passed away with no anxiety, but rather, the survivors were left to confront the aftermaths of death. In the last quatrain, the family members must deal with an “awful leisure” (27) that diffuses after the woman’s death. These antithetical terms signify the paradoxical truth of liberation from anticipating and ultimately experiencing the death of a loved one. The insertion of an adjective describing a rather contradictory word demonstrates… This simple oxymoron conveys a complex and intricate reality regarding the consequences of death.