One of the most fascinating things that I find about Emily Dickinson's poetry is her overwhelming attention to detail, especially her intriguing insights on death. "I've Seen a Dying Eye," by Dickinson, is a poem about the nature of death. A sense of uncertainty and uncontrollability about death seems to exist in her poem. For example, the observer's (who is also the speaker) speech seems hesitant and unsure of what he or she is seeing, partly because of the dashes, but also because of the words used to describe the scene. As the eye is observed looking for something, then becoming cloudy and progressing through more obscurity until it finally comes to rest, the person observing the death cannot provide any definite proof that what the dying person saw was hopeful or disturbing. The dying person seems to have no control over the clouds covering his or her eye, which is frantically searching for something that it can only hope to find before the clouds totally consume it.

Death, as an uncontrollable force, seems to sweep over the dying. More importantly, as the poem is from the point of view of the observer, whether the dying person saw anything or not is not as signifi

The eye's journey through the clouds and the expanding obscurity represents the search for an existence after death. As the eye ran around the room the observer sees the eye's journey, "Then Cloudier become--/And then--obscure with Fog--" (ll. 4-5). The observer, through his or her's hesitant speech, has already proved that there is an uncertainty or wariness about what he or she is observing. Once again, because the observer has the central point of view, it is important that we realize it is his or her doubt and assumptions we are considering. As the clouds close in around the dying person's eyes, the observer sees that the dying person has no control over them. It is as if the eye is still searching, while the clouds, representing death, close in around them. The eye is not only looking, but it seems to be frantically looking around for something beyond death.

It seems that we sometimes, as in the case of this particular observer, envy a dead person because they have discovered the answer to a haunting question-what lies ahead after death? The reality of the situation is that because we-the observer, Dickinson, and the reader(s)-choose to ponder that question, we give death a certain power over our lives. In other words, by spending our whole life in uncertainty about death we constitute a kind of "journey" towards death without having to experience any of the physical pain. The realizations and guesses that we make pertaining to death make up the various stops along the way with the destination being that moment when the truth is revealed. The uncertainty about death and what remains after controls those who are still traveling in their journey, like Dickinson during the time she wrote this poem.

The idea that something exists after death is uncertain in this poem. Therefore, it is important that the point of view is that of the observer. The observer sees in the first few lines, "I've seen a Dying Eye/Run round and round a Room--/In search of

With words like "run" used, a sense of urgency is added, and there seems to be a sense of panic in the dying person, which would indicate him or her having no control over the circumstances associated with death. If the clouds are to represent death, then the dying person having no control over the clouds, would, therefore, have no control over death. The impression that maybe the dying person in this poem i

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1603
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)