Eternal Life After Death In Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Many of Emily Dickinson’s poems are seen as morbid because death is a reoccurring theme in her poems. Her continuous experience with the death of her loved ones led to her constant fascination with death and her exploration of the topic in her poems. Like any other individual, she was unsure of the state of existence of living creatures after death. Growing up a Calvinist, she struggled with the idea of believing in God in order for one to have eternal life after death rather than to perish in hell with the devil. She acknowledged that “[everyone] approaches the macula with the passage of time and that [no one] can move over the macula, nor can [anyone] stop approaching it” (REN, 97). She accepted that death is unavoidable, yet “she did not …show more content…
Every step, every decision made, no matter what issue it is made on, it leads to being one step closer to dying. Unless a person happens to be Elijah in the Bible who went up by a whirlwind into heaven on a chariot of fire pulled by horses of fire (2 Kings 2:11), they have to experience death. It is unavoidable and no one can prepare for it; all one can do is to accept their fate. Jesus, the son of God had to come to Earth in human form to die for sinners to have the opportunity to be saved. But being that he is one-third of the body of the trinity, he was aware of his mission and the whole process he would go through in death so he was prepared to die; mere humans do not get that privilege. In A Dying Tiger – moaned for Drink the speaker explains her journey to try to save the dying tiger by bringing him water but the tiger died upon reaching him with the water: “bore in [her] hand” (4). “His last sight was ‘Of Water—and of me-’ and she is haunted by his unfulfilled longing” (Pollak, 46). No matter the effort that was put into trying to save the tiger, the tiger dies. At that moment of death, he subconsciously accepts that he is about to die though he is not prepared to die or for what would come next after his death. Just as the person that is dying is unprepared, so are the people around them. The speaker in this is not willing to accept the tiger’s death. “The last stanza attempts, somewhat lamely, to …show more content…
Christians believe that death gives people the opportunity to be seated in heaven with God. This opportunity only comes as a reward to those that found Christ before they died and are seen as righteous, holy and pure before God. Growing up a Calvinist, Dickinson was taught to believe this which she did believe to some extent as she remains skeptical about what really happens. In Because I could not stop for Death, Dickinson explores this topic by showing a literal journey that the speaker has with death. The speaker had no choice in her own death, she shows respect to death. She gives him the authority that she feels he deserves. In the first stanza, Death shows up to carry the speaker out for a ride in “The Carriage held by just [them]/And Immortality, (3-4), showing that death promises immortality. The second stanza shows death being portrayed as a kind gentleman caller. He shows up on time then “drove the carriage with respect that he had a lady companion in by his side. He also took his time knowing “he always has enough power and time” (REN, 98). The third stanza paints a picture of movement and stillness that distinguishes life from death. “[They] passed the School, where Children strove/At Recess—in the Ring—” (9-10), showing the life of others going on as the speaker goes through death. The children at recess are a great symbol for life because they generally are further from meeting death compared