The Theme of Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

The Theme of Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

The Theme of Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

The Theme of Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

Miss Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a great female poet of America. She wrote poetry on a variety of themes such as—death, nature, love, pain and sufferance and so on. Amongst these, the theme of death plays an important appealing role in her poetry. She had written as many as five hundred poems on the theme of death. A reading of his poetry shows that the feeling of death haunted her throughout her life and she died daily and experienced it daily. Death, she considered it to be a gateway that led one to immortality. She gained both the grim and pleasant sides of death. Death sometimes became her playmate and sometimes it became a source of horror and sufferance. A close study of her poems clarifies this.

‘Because I Could Not Stop for Death’ is one of her best poems written on the theme of death. In this poem, she visualizes death as a cart-man. Hence, in this poem death is portrayed as her playmate. Death is very kind and generous to her. Death carries her to immortality. The poetess says:

‘Because I could not stop for Death

He kindly stops for me—

The carries held but just ourselves—

And immortality.’

The poetess gives a very vivid picture of her journey with Death leading to eternity. The description is very vivid and realistic. She says in the third stanza of the said poem as:

‘We passed the school, where Children strove

At Recess—in the Ring—

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—

We passed the Setting Sun—’

‘I Felt a Funeral in My Brain’ is another poem on the theme of death. In this poem, she visualizes the ritual works after her death by anticipation. But in it she expresses no grim side of death but simply says:

‘I felt a Funeral in My Brain

And Mourners to and fro.

Kept treading—treading—till it seemed 

That sense was breaking through—’

In another poem entitled ‘She Lay as if at Play’ she portrays the death scene of a little girl very tenderly. The little girl dies but seems that she is in her play. The poetess says:

‘She lay as if at play

Her life had leaped away—

Intending to return—

But not so soon.’

In the poem ‘I Heard a Fly Buzz’ the poet visualizes her own death. She dies in calm; there is no din and bustle. In her own words:

‘I heard a fly buzz—when I died—

The Stillness in the Room

Was like the Stillness in the Air—

Between the Heaven and Storm—’

Thus from the above analysis of some of her poems, it has been seen that Emily Dickinson’s poems dealing with the theme of death are very explicit and visual through which her mystic and philosophic view on death is divulged. Sometimes he has gone away from Christian principles and traditional beliefs. She says, certainly that death leads one to heaven and it makes an end to the sorrow, sufferance, distress and despair in life. Her place as a poet of death is after none in American literature though there was Walt Whitman who also wrote some poems on the same themes but it was Dickinson who always bore the memory of imminent death with her and unlocked that feelings explicitly in her poems. 0 0 0

The Theme of Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

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The Theme of Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

N. B. This article entitled ‘The Theme of Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson’ originally belongs to the book ‘Emily Dickinson’s Poetry: A Thematic Study‘ by Menonim Menonimus. The Theme of Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

Books of Literary Criticism by M. Menonimus:

1. World Short Story Criticism
2. World Poetry Criticism
3. World Drama Criticism
4. World Novel Criticism
5. World Essay Criticism
6. Indian English Poetry Criticism
7. Indian English Poets and Poetry Chief Features
8. Emily Dickinson’s Poetry-A Thematic Study
9. Walt Whitman’s Poetry-A Thematic Study
10. Critical Essays on English Poetry
11. Tawfiq al-Hakim’s Novel: Return of the Spirit-An Analytical Study
12. Tawfiq al-Hakim’s Novel: ‘Yawmiyyat Naib Fil Arayaf’-An Analytical Study
13. Analytical Studies of Some Arabic Short Stories
14. A Brief History of Arabic Literature: Pre-Islamic Period …