Death, Nature, and Love In the Writings of Emily Dickinson
Not one of Emily Elizabeth Dickinson's readers has met the woman who lived and died in Amherst, Massachusetts more than a century ago, yet most of those same readers who have come to understand her through her work feel as if they know her closely. However it was her reclusive life that made understanding her quite difficult. However, taking a close look at her verses, one can learn a great deal about this remarkable woman. The poetry of Emily Dickinson dives deep into her mind, exploring and exposing her personal experiences and their influence on her thoughts about religion, love, and death. By examining her life some, and reading her poetry in a certain light, one can see an obvious autobiographical connection. As America's best-known female poet and one of the foremost authors in American literature, Dickinson is simply constructed yet intensely felt as her acutely intellectual writings take subject issues substantially into humanity, and exposing the agonies and ecstasies of love, sexuality, the horrors of war, God and religious belief, the importance of humor, and the unfathomable nature of death.Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, Dickinson was the middle child of a prominent politician, lawyer, and one-term United States
Throughout her childhood Emily Dickinson was known for her shyness and was viewed relatively different from the others. Emily was quiet and did not benefit from the busy and popular social life in Amherst nor did she care for it. As a child growing up in a Christian center like Amherst, Emily was expected to take up the religion of her father willingly and without any disagreements. However, Emily did not fit in to the busy community as easily as did the other children. She argued and disagreed with her father about his religious beliefs and as a result he "censored" her from reading adult-level books and limited her to specific books. Emily was sent for formal education at Amherst Academy for seven years. After having attending Amherst Academy with such consciencious thinkers as Helen Hunt Jackson and significant others, and after reading many of Emerson's essays, she began to develop into a free-willed person facing several changes throughout her adolescence. Many of her friends had converted to Christianity and her family had been putting enormous amounts of pressure for her to convert. But no longer the submissive youngster she was, Dickinson would not bend her will on such issues as religion, literature and personal associations. Emily Dickinson dresses the scene such that mental pictures of sight, feeling, and sound come to life. The imagery begins the moment Dickinson invites Her reader into the "Carriage." Death "slowly" takes the readers on a sight seeing trip where they see the stages of life. The first site "We" passed was the "School, where Children strove". Because it deals with an important symbol, -the "Ring"-this first scene is perhaps the most important. At recess, the children performed a venerable ritual, perhaps known to all - "Ring-Around-The-Roses." On this invited journey, one vividly sees the "Children" playing, laughing, and singing. This scene conveys deep emotions and moods through verbal pictures. The imagery in the final scene, "We passed the Setting Sun," proved very emotional. One can clearly picture a warm setting sun, perhaps, over a grassy horizon. When Dickinson passed the "Setting Sun," night drew high and it was time to go home and sleep. Symbolically, her tour of life was short; it was now time for "Eternity"-death. While sight seeing in the carriage, one can gather, by the setting of the sun, that this ride was lifelong. It is evident that death can creep up on his client. Often times, when one experience a joyous time, time seems to "fly". In the same respect, Emily Dickinson states "Or rather-He [the Setting Sun] passed Us-". In this line, one can see how Dickinson, dressed for the "Day," indicates that a pleasant time was cut short. Before She knew it, the cold "Dews drew quivering and chill". The imagery in this transcendent poem shines great light on some hidden similarities between life and death. Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death" is a remarkable masterpiece that exercises thought between the known and the unknown. Critics call Emily Dickinson's poem a masterpiece with strange "haunting power." In Dickinson's poem, "Because I could not stop for Death," there is much impression in the tone, in symbols, and in the use of imagery that exudes creativity. One might undoubtedly agree to an eerie, haunting, if not frightening, tone in Dickinson's poem. Dickinson uses controlling words-"slowly" and "passed"-to create a tone that seems rather placid. For example, "We slowly drove-He knew no haste / ...We passed the School ... / We passed the Setting Sun-," sets a slow, quiet, calm, and dreamy atmosphere. The tone in Dickinson's poem will put its readers' ideas on a unifying track heading towards a boggling atmosphere.
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Approximate Word count = 4318
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page double spaced)
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