When I was reading through the cluster for tomorrow, again there were a lot of poems about death, and I have fallen victim to reading a ton of her poems as a commentary on death until proven otherwise. But I did find it interesting particularly how different poems seem to have completely different views/takes on what death means at that particular time.

For example in Poem 479, “Because I could not stop for Death-”, I read it as her personifying death, in a Whitman type fashion, and slowly embarking on a journey to the end. Repeating the phrase “We passed”, making it feel as though she is on a slow journey with death. The poem feels not “dragged” but definitely not rushed, as she lays out the journey. This is what felt Whitman-ish to me. Words like “kindly stopped”, “slowly”, “leisure”, “paused”, paints the mood of her depiction of death as comfortable, rather than sudden and wrenching, less doom and more tranquil. Near the end she says that it has since been centuries, that it feels shorter than the day, because of the length of eternity. This to me feels like she brilliantly manipulates the readers’ perception of time in relation to death. A peacefully slow, yet somehow fleeting journey of life.

Yet starkly different is Poem 487 that I read as referring to death as well. The first word “Presentiment” primes my read of the poem as more “doom and despair -ish” at the outset. But “long shadow”, “startled grass”, indicates the suddenness of death in this poem. The sun going down, (a sun that is frequently equated in her poems as hope and happiness), removes any joy that can be taken from this poem, and makes the heavy feeling even heavier. 

I also noted the length of each poem and the extent to which she elaborates on death. In the first, she walks readers through the journey in its full length and gives readers hope of a peaceful eternity when she describes that is the way the horses draw the carriage face. But the ominous poem is short and lacks elaboration. It makes the reader draw the meaning, and at least it made it even more ominous and sudden, it felt short and choppy. It was fascinating to me that Dickinson could write two such drastically different poems on death and communicate two widely different feelings. I wonder what was going through her head at each poem’s time.

This is my April 2 work.

Analysis/Discussion Questions for Poems #466, #479, & #546 (some of the poems that interested me the most from our readings). 🙂

#466 – I really enjoyed this poem specifically because we directly hear about Dickinson’s preference of poetry as opposed to plain writing/prose. She describes poetry as a sort of chamber of possibility and a “fairer house than Prose” (2). There’s more doors, windows, opportunity, the roof for creativity and expression is seemingly limitless. I felt a certain passion from this poem that is very inspiring and beautiful. One of the lines that struck me the most was “impregnable of eye” (6). Poetry’s “chambers” are so boundless that the human eye can not definitively define them. As someone who wasn’t very fond of poetry before this course, I can say it has definitely grown on me and this poem helped me learn to love it even more. I do have a question about this poem for discussion though- I interpreted the poem as saying Dickinson prefers poetry to prose. Is it possible that she views prose as more limited and definitive as a literary art form, or is it simply just a preference?

#479 – Just a few questions for discussion in this one because I feel like “Death” in this poem is being personified in a couple different ways- It starts off by speaking of his kindness, and how he was in no rush on this “carriage ride.” However, later in the poem includes imagery of the “Dews drew quivering and chill” as he passes. How is “Death” meant to be perceived in this poem, what is Dickinson trying to say about it? Why is immortality introduced at the beginning of this poem, and then eternity is brought in at the end, what’s the significance of this, if any?

#546 – My main questions for this poem are surrounding Dickinson’s opinion on religion. With the line “I prayed, at first, a little Girl, Because they told me to -” (1-2), it appears to be discussing childhood faith and how it can be forced upon the young. It reminds me of how we were talking about the “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer in class the other day, and how when you say it now, it sounds a bit creepy and unsettling in a few ways. What is Dickinson trying to say about this here, if anything?

I really liked the poems for today’s reading! I feel like they had a lot of common themes that we’ve seen before for Dickinson, Death, Religion, Life, and Nature, but there were a few poems that really stood out for me. I really liked her poems in the beginning where she touched a lot on pain and death (I know how edgy of me) and I feel like there’s a lot to be said about her views on both topics and how they are intertwined. How did she come to have these views? Was there something going on in her life at the time she wrote these that would cause her to feel this way?

339 and 340 both touch on pain and agony with different responses to it. 339 focuses on how agony proves your alive and it can’t lie. If someones in pain then they are still alive and can feel something, and whatever that pain is, is truthful. Death is similar to agony in that way, nothing about death can be faked. In the poem 340, its less about how truthful pain or death is, but about reactions to it. In poem 339, Dickinson states that feeling agony means your alive, which could be taken to mean that not feeling anything means you are dead. Poem 340 talks about a funeral, and it follows the author through a funeral and their reactions to death. The narrator describes that their mind was going numb, which could be equated to a sort of death from the earlier poem when comparing them. The poem also ends on a hyphen right after a then. This could very easily be someones story being cut short, the person in the coffin, and their relationship with the narrator.

My favorite poem by far though is poem 347. This feels a bit like a poem about depression. The narrator couldn’t bear spring to come, wishes the grass would hurry and hide them from view, wishes that the bee’s would stay away so they would not have to talk, dares not to go near daffodils for fear of being stained by a foreign color, and so on. When you’re depressed and feel so numb, and the world around you doesn’t reflect that, it can exacerbate the feeling. when everything’s cheery and your not, it results in a disconnect from yourself and the world. Her not wanting to meet the daffodils, for fear of the yellow, a color usually associated with happiness, and stating how it would be a foreign fashion, reflects her mindset here. She’s sad and doesn’t want to have to look happy. This logic follows for the rest of the examples here, not wanting to be seen, so hoping the grasses grow and cover her, not wanting to have to talk to people, so she hopes the bee’s (other people) stay away. At the end though, it changes to a somewhat more hopeful note. Dickinson writes that spring arrived anyways, in a gentle deference to her, and each one quietly acknowledges her in her sadness, and through that, her “childish plumes” lift as well. I think it’s a very insightful take on how wallowing feels easier but eventually, if you surround yourself with understanding, gentle, happiness, it will wear off on you. And eventually, that feeling will shrink.

Another poem I really enjoyed analyzing for this class was 348 (I know, I liked a lot of the first poems, give me a break)! This poem, to me, seemed to talk about how Dickinson wants to be viewed as a work of art, through her poetry. She wants to invoke thought and emotion and be known for that. She wants to be treated as something to be marveled at and talked about, but not too. She wants others to form their own opinions on her poems and talk about them.

As said, I really enjoyed all poems in this section but these four, even though they were the first, were my favorite. Other notable poems I liked though that I do just have to mention are 353, 355, 413, and 446! And as a personal aside, poem 373 holds a special spot for me. When reading it, I’m not sure why but I was really reminded of the Minecraft poem. It seems about being celebrating humans as a whole and all we can do and learn. How humans will always want more and have a spirit. Just a nice aside!

I found this poem especially interesting because I relate it to when my mind wanders off to thinking about mortality and all that fun existential stuff sometimes. I read this poem with a somewhat ironic tone that honestly makes me laugh. She talks about how we’ll never escape bodily decay, how life is short, and how suffering is long; however, she dismisses all of these ideas at the end of each stanza with the phrase, “but, what of that?” (2.8). I find the third stanza the most interesting. To me, it seems like Dickinson is suggesting that in Heaven, life will be equal- the discrimination, lack of fairness, and cruelty we experience on Earth will no longer exist, and some new sense of balance will take its place. However, she still dismisses this seemingly idyllic afterlife with the same phrase, “but, what of that?” I’m especially curious about why she ends the poem this way. Does it suggest religious doubt about the afterlife, or some indifference of some kind? Is it more of a message to focus on your present life, making the afterlife irrelevant? It could also mean that the pain experienced on Earth is so irreparable that even the idea of Heaven doesn’t matter much. I know Dickinson often writes about death, but this poem stood out to me because of that final line, I’m not fully sure what to make of it.

It’s not that she loses the title of maid completely, when she assumes the Bride/Wife role she is now both things simultaneously. As a Bride it is tradition to serve your husband, maids serve the home. In this nature, the titles of a woman never leave, they just collect more. They become more taxed with increasing responsibility and even more so when they become the default parent of their children. What is also worrisome here, is that she is afraid of what awaits her at the top of the stairs. She’s seen how other women have experienced this same trajectory and desperately wants an out. She might not trust who is waiting for her or trust in herself to not do something rash when she does reach the top. To her, death is easier than existing in a loveless and economic focused marriage. Before she climbs the stairs, there seems to be an air of choice, but upon climbing them, she accepts the dreaded life promised to her.