Dickinson and Her Obsession with Death
Throughout much of her life Emily Dickinson showed signs of anxiety and obsession. This charming timid young woman retreated to her room and often never left, spending her days locked away writing poetry. When she died she left many works about many different things, but just one look at Emily Dickinson's poems reveals that death is her principal subject, this young spinster had an obsession with it. Other nineteenth-century poets, such as Whitman and Keats, were also death-haunted, but far lesser than that of Emily Dickinson. Portraying death as a gentleman, or speaking about funerals, or describing the tombs which encased bodies, all of these poems have one thing in common death or dying. It seems …show more content…
This scene takes place after the two have died and they are laying in the same tomb, it is an interesting perspective to take on death, trying to more or less speak from the grave. Death is surrounding Dickinson at this time so it is not surprising that she would write about death. In another poem by Dickinson she compares death to an endless sleep, which many people have done, but Dickinson makes it sound ever so peaceful and beautiful in her poem, “’A long, long sleep, a famous sleep/ That makes no show for dawn/ By stretch of limb or stir of lid,--/ An independent one”’ (Dickinson 10). Writing about such a depressing subject but making it sound absolutely peaceful and enjoyable, comparing death to sleep is something generations can relate to. She does not seem depressed she sound curious, as if Dickinson wants to know what people feel, and think about when they are faced with the situation of losing someone close. Writing is a mechanism to cope, and Dickinson used it to her advantage, to make beautiful works of …show more content…
Just like in most of her poems Dickinson focused on death, but the imagery of this poem focuses on the immobility of the dead, showing how far the living is from the dead. Another poem that focues on immortality “’Those not live yet/ Who doubt to live again --/ ’Again’ is of a twice /But this -- is one --‘” (Those Not Lived yet). Dickinson creates a beautiful pure place to be for eternity. Costume less, not having to hide the truth from everyone, not having to put a façade on, to be oneself. Dickinson does however; appear to be uncertain in other poems in her work as to whether or not immortality is possible. . “’With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz-/ Between the light - and me -/And then the Windows failed - and then/I could not see to see –‘” (Dickinson 21). The poem has a speaker who communicates to the reader from beyond the grave, she is hovering over her body and watching everything going on around her, it show the dying process, and at the end she could not see, everything went
Throughout much of her life Emily Dickinson showed signs of anxiety and obsession. This charming timid young woman retreated to her room and often never left, spending her days locked away writing poetry. When she died she left many works about many different things, but just one look at Emily Dickinson's poems reveals that death is her principal subject, this young spinster had an obsession with it. Other nineteenth-century poets, such as Whitman and Keats, were also death-haunted, but far lesser than that of Emily Dickinson. Portraying death as a gentleman, or speaking about funerals, or describing the tombs which encased bodies, all of these poems have one thing in common death or dying. It seems …show more content…
This scene takes place after the two have died and they are laying in the same tomb, it is an interesting perspective to take on death, trying to more or less speak from the grave. Death is surrounding Dickinson at this time so it is not surprising that she would write about death. In another poem by Dickinson she compares death to an endless sleep, which many people have done, but Dickinson makes it sound ever so peaceful and beautiful in her poem, “’A long, long sleep, a famous sleep/ That makes no show for dawn/ By stretch of limb or stir of lid,--/ An independent one”’ (Dickinson 10). Writing about such a depressing subject but making it sound absolutely peaceful and enjoyable, comparing death to sleep is something generations can relate to. She does not seem depressed she sound curious, as if Dickinson wants to know what people feel, and think about when they are faced with the situation of losing someone close. Writing is a mechanism to cope, and Dickinson used it to her advantage, to make beautiful works of …show more content…
Just like in most of her poems Dickinson focused on death, but the imagery of this poem focuses on the immobility of the dead, showing how far the living is from the dead. Another poem that focues on immortality “’Those not live yet/ Who doubt to live again --/ ’Again’ is of a twice /But this -- is one --‘” (Those Not Lived yet). Dickinson creates a beautiful pure place to be for eternity. Costume less, not having to hide the truth from everyone, not having to put a façade on, to be oneself. Dickinson does however; appear to be uncertain in other poems in her work as to whether or not immortality is possible. . “’With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz-/ Between the light - and me -/And then the Windows failed - and then/I could not see to see –‘” (Dickinson 21). The poem has a speaker who communicates to the reader from beyond the grave, she is hovering over her body and watching everything going on around her, it show the dying process, and at the end she could not see, everything went