Emily Dickinson To Fight Aloud Analysis

Emily Dickinson’s poem “To Fight aloud is very brave” is structured in three stanzas with four lines in each. The first stanza of the poem is rhythmic, but then the flow abruptly stops in the last two stanzas. The poem’s main focal point is about the effects war has on those who have fought in them. In addition to Dickinson’s main topic, her poem seems to have some patriotic elements, but there’s also an underlying sense of sorrow and grief. Despite the poems we have read in class that glorify war, Dickinson in her poem is highlighting the aspect of war that people seem to forgotten. That aspect she writes about is the suffering and grief that those who fought in the war have to deal with afterwards. In the first stanza Dickinson wrote “to fight aloud is very brave, but gallanter, I know who charge within the bosom, the cavalry of woe.” In these four line the author is acknowledging the bravery it takes for one to fight in a war, but Dickinson believes that it takes more courage and strength to deal with your own internal grief. Unfortunately, many soldiers have to carry with them the burden and images of war. These soldiers also carry on their conscience the men they had to kill during war. Dickinson acknowledges the act of being in physical battle, but she also …show more content…
The first line of the stanza is “we trust, in plumed procession” by Dickinson changing her voice from “I” to “We” she is essentially trying to create a more dramatic affect by including her audience. Also, the second half of the sentence may be a spiritual inference to a ceremony or a transitional change. The use of the word “angel” gives a spiritual reference to heaven and the snow may be a symbol of purity or even death because winter is associated with the dying of the earth. Either way Dickinson may feel that those who endure these tribulation after war will be ascended to heaven after