Naive and arrogant personas in Emily Dickinson's poems "
In Emily Dickinson's poems, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" and "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" the personas have an adolescent naive ness and arrogance towards two different ideas: death and society. In Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death", the persona does not realize she is heading towards death until halfway through her journey. For her it is a nice little carriage date. The poems physical structure is in correlation with her realization of the transition into death. The first three stanzas include a persona, which is happy and calm almost naive to the fact that the carriage is heading towards death. This can be observed in the lines, "The Carriage held but just Ourselves--/And Immortality--"(3-4). The persona mentions immortality as though she thinks that she is going to live forever when in fact she is not. However, when the poem enters the last three stanzas the tone shifts to a gloomy and confused state. "Or rather-He passed Us--"(13) the persona says with utter confusion realizing that she is dying.The personas journey commences with a gentleman named Death, who "kindly stopped" (2) for her. The persona is naive and almost girl-like to think death is kind. The carriage ride is slow and her suit
The third and fourth lines in this stanza " The Roof was scarcely visible--/ The Cornice - in the Ground--" (19-20) emphasize that she is buried in the earth. In Dickinson's poem, "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" the persona is child-like as well and arrogant towards her society opposed to death. The ghostly imagery is reinforcing the concept of eternal death. The lines "How dreary-to be-Somebody! /How public-like a Frog--/To tell your name-the livelong June--/to an admiring Bog!"(5-8) display her arrogance towards society. Youth is symbolized by "Children strove/At recess-in the Ring--"(9-10), growing up is symbolized by the "Gazing Grain--"(11) and the end of life is symbolized by "the Setting Sun--"(12). The persona now at this mark in the poem is realizing the setting sun is the end of her life and it passed her without warning. The fourth stanza begins very uniquely. In a literal sense, as the carriage gains altitude to make its heavenly approach, a house seems as " A Swelling of the Ground-" (18). Although the journey was filled with clues about her passing, she never realizes it until the sun passed them. She is mentioning how polite this man is for driving so slow and making the ride long and pleasurable. Entering the third stanza Dickinson uses symbolism to portray the stages of life. The persona begins by introducing herself as "Nobody!"(1) coming off boastful in a sense. These dashes and pauses make the persona seem like she is hesitant and stuttering in her childish argument of society and how they view her. In closing, the two personas in "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" and "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" share their adolescent qualities that make the poems humorous in a sense.
Common topics in this essay:
Heads/ Eternity--24,
Ourselves--/And Immortality--3-4,
Setting Sun--12,
Gossamer Gown15,
Death I'm,
Stop Death,
I'm Nobody1,
Swelling Ground-,
Cornice Ground--,
Emily Dickinson's,
stop death,
heading towards,
heading towards death,
towards death,
death kindly,
dashes pauses,
towards society,
carriage ride,
persona naive,
arrogance towards,
stop death i'm,
rather-he passed us--13,
physical structure,
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Acceptance Essays
