During the late nineteenth century, Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) featured as one of the few female poets in the largely male-dominated sphere of American literature. Although she authored 1800 poems, only seven were published during her lifetime - why? Emily Dickinson has always provoked debate; over her life, her motivations for the words she wrote and the interpretations of those words. It can be argued that Emily Dickinson herself, was as ambiguous, as misunderstood and as elusive as her poetry. As a outlet for relentless examination of every aspect of her mind and faith her poems are both expository and puzzling. Her conclusions are often cryptically implicit and largely dependant on the readers ability to put together the pieces - to see the connections and implications. Amy Lowell said "She was the mistress of suggestion....and to a lesser degree, irony" The ruses and riddles in her poems came from her; and as such she too was a riddle.

The poem #465 "I heard a fly buzz when I died", a macabre poem, where the grand scene of dying is eclipsed by the vulgar and funny moment of death. It is a riddle in its ironical and satirical view of the scene. It is a retrospective of someone's own sensations during death. It is a satiric poem - in that the traditional view of death is as a peaceful release, whereas Dickinson sees disappointment, alienation and a buzzing fly. There is a sense of the situation being almost a comedy of irreverence. A kind of gothic/comic relief sets an odd tone, traditionally death is a sober occasion, but this is the irony in the poem. The poem is in fact a ironic reversal of the conventional attitudes of the time and place toward the significance of the moment of death. Dickinson has strived for rhyme and meter in this poem, reflecting the continuance of the telling of her story - there is a parallel of structure and sense. The point of view is deliberately engineered to be amusing and ironic. The fly represents both the feeder on carrion, a symbol of life and echoes Dickinson's larger theme : This world is all. In the final line "I could not see to see" the subject is still not able to imagine her/his own lack of consciousness.

For her, life, nature and faith were all riddles in themselves. None of these three come with all the answers, although clues are given - her poems both deal with and mirror this phenomenon.

Poem #214 "I taste a liquor never brewed", is generally considered to be a poem of importance amongst Dickinson's works. The poem appears to be an extended metaphor about "I", who is assumed to be the poet, reeling drunkenly through a garden, intoxicated on flowers and summer air, or perhaps on a more metaphysical level, pretending to be drunk with the joy of living. The riddle is GUESS WHO ?- Who is "I"? It can be argued that the poem describes the flight of a drunken hummingbird, using personification to endow it with human qualities. (the "drunken bee", "butterflies - renounce their drams". The ultimate triumph of the poem is her praising and condoning the scandalous and socially unacceptable behaviour of the hummingbird. The rhythm used is almost that of the hymn, rendering the poem even more ironic (and audacious) in view of the pervasive alcoholic beverage imagery used throughout the poem (for example - tankards / vats / liquor / inebriate / debauchee / inns / drams) In the third stanza, all the other drinkers must stop "when "Landlords" turn the drunken bee / out of the foxgloves door -", the hummingbird can continue using his long bill; until the final lines when he is seen "leaning against the sun". The poem celebrates the sensuous, and plays with perception. "Liquor never brewed" could well be nectar. In spite of the apparent unconcern with rhyme, metrics and technical construction, the poem has an essential and intrinsic melody.

It has been said that criticism on Dickinson is essentially a record of the attempts to decipher the images, solve the riddles, identify the allusions, and go to the heart of her poems. Several are considered to be almost impregnable, their ambiguous, enigmatic, allusive, vague, riddle-like nature thought too complex by some to decipher. Riddles, and rid

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