Analysis Of Emily Dickinson

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Death. It is such a hard work to hear. Nobody likes hearing or learning about death, but it is a natural occurrence of life that everyone deals with. Specifically speaking, whenever death is brought up in the context of American Literature, Emily Dickinson is the first poet to come mind. It is easy to look at one of her claustrophobic poems and misinterpret the true message she wants readers to receive. Upon further analysis of these disturbingly detailed works, a reader like myself will find that not only is Dickinson obsessed with death, but also truth, religion, and suffering.
Emily Dickinson was an American poet born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Dickinson lived a very introverted and secluded life but that did not necessarily mean it couldn’t …show more content…

She had a strong opinion towards truth and how much of the truth humans can take. In poem 1129, Dickinson says “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—” (1), meaning don’t tell a lie. However, she follows that up by saying it is alright to sugar coat it a bit, only if the stretching of the truth will benefit the person hearing it. The word truth is capitalized in the original poem, Dickinson did not do this by accident. Dickinson often capitalized words to make them pop out on paper or to emphasize the meaning of them. By capitalizing the word “Truth”, Dickinson leads us to believe that telling the truth is the number one priority. If it just so happens that the truth needs to be altered slightly to please everyone hearing it, then she will not oppose. In poem 241, Dickinson says “I like a look of Agony, / Because I know it’s true—” (lines 1-2), another poem in which she depicts the value of the truth. She has felt pure agony and pain, and knows it is no joke. She did not use the word “truth” very lightly, so when she compares agony to the truth it only solidifies the reader’s thoughts that Dickinson was psychologically unstable and needed …show more content…

In her poetry she continuously would cut herself off mid-thought because she didn’t know what to expect from death. In my favorite Dickinson poem, poem 465, I finally understand the imagery of death she was trying to portray all along. She talks about herself in a room, surrounded by her loved ones. It is silent in the room as everyone has already cried all of the tears they possibly could. Everyone knows it is coming but they don’t know when, she is going to die. She feels a God like figure in the room who is there to take her away and refers to him as “the King”. Just as her “Windows failed” (15), her eyes stopped working, a fly came into the room. This fly can either be interpreted by the reader as a humorous edition, or as a real life reference. The moment someone dies is a big one, and one to be remembered. The fly in the room, buzzing around, interrupts this moment and distracts everyone for that split second that she passes away and they miss her death. In the real world, outside of poems, death is scary and Emily Dickinson knew that. She wasn’t necessarily afraid of it, but she knew the severity of it. This fly disrupted her thoughts while dying and made the experience painless and quick. Whether she would come to terms and admit it or not, Dickinson’s life revolved around death and she liked it that way until the grim reaper finally got ahold of

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