Emily D
Why Death-Nor the use of the poetic techniques of point of view, tone, andmetaphor is not to be feared, at least according to Emily Dickinson It is often said that death, because it was a more constant presencein the lives and living rooms of the inhabitants of Early American NewEngland, was not regarded with the same fear and horror that we, thecontemporary residents of America are apt to regard the final exit from theliving world. This may or may not be the case, as it is difficult to'measure' fear. However, it is clear by the way that Emily Dickinson as anindividual and as a poet deployed the poetic devices of point of view,tone, and metaphor, that she was intent upon attempting to convince herreaders and perhaps herself that death was merely another mode ofexistence, and therefore not something to dread. Death is another worldand state of being, rather than a termination of being itself, in One of the Belle of Amherst's (as the poet is often called todayalthough, not during her own obscure lifetime) most famous poems is "Iheard a Fly buzz-when I died-" This poem, like "I felt a funeral, in myBrain," takes the reader by immediate surprise because of its narratio
As the funeral takes place,beginning first in her brain with the sight of mourners, she, as she sinksinto the earth, does not express fear or horror at being buried alive butrather, she accepts what happens," And hit a World, at every plunge,"observing her entrance into something not fully describable, because it isso different from what she has left. Death isnot something to be feared, it is merely something different, somethingthat can be touched upon in words, but not fully conveyed. The poem's speaker first hears to mourners, on herbrain, as she no longer has the gift of motion or touch, and the servicebeats upon her mind. It is also her letting go of herhuman will, her ties to the world, which she does without a second thoughtor care. Of course, the end of both of these poems could strike the reader asquite chilling. But by narrating the poem from the point of view of a deadwoman, the poems contain no past, no reflections upon the meaning of death. Death is adifferent point of view and a different way of emotionally 'seeing' orexperiencing the world, but it is not something one should dread, even whenone is in the world of the living. The readerdoes not know if the speaker is poor or rich, any more than he or she knowshis or her past. One never knows the fate ofthe fly or the speaker. This message is conveyed by thesignificance given to the focus of the fly in the dying woman'sconsciousness, again rather than her past or future. "And then the Windows failed-and thenI could not see to see-" In, "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain," there is also a sense of realityto the metaphors used. The poemabout the fly even ends with a dash, without a tone of final closure,rather than a conventionally expected period. "WithBlue-uncertain stumbling Buzz-," the fly bumbles around the room, much likethe soul may have felt in life, "Between the light-and me" The fly, likethe human being on the bed searches for an answer, and although at the endof the poem the fly is not free, whatever falls in closure before thespeakers eyes suggests that she has found what the fly is searching for. Even the heartiest living mourner would probably betempted to reflect somberly about death, or about the life of the departedindividual. Nor is there any since of sorrow in either sickroom.
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Acceptance Essays
