Death in Emily Dickinson's Poems Free Essay Example

Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous 19th-century poets, and a predominant theme in her poems is death and immortality. She describes death as a part of Nature or as a man's enemy and attacker of one's life. Most of her death content is based on the family and friends around her who died, giving her the imagination and uncertainty of what happens when you die. Dickinson's poems ¨I like a look of agony¨, ¨A clock stopped¨, ¨Death sets a thing significant¨, and ¨Because I could not stop for death¨ best describe the thematic characters of death, with each poem having death represented as the only true thing in life, a clock representing the life of someone, emotions and grief that are truly unbearable, and even a real person.

Dickinson's ¨I like a look of agony¨ focuses on the speaker describing the emotions death has to offer as it is simply a part of its nature. The look of agony is what is given as you reach that point of nature in a person's life where you must die. In the first two lines of the poem, 

“I like a look of agony. 

Because I know it's true-”(Dickinson 4) 

has the speaker reflect on the life of a person only being real and true because you must all reach your death, causing agony. The look of emotion as if someone is in pain is what the speaker is trying to describe as true and pure emotion. This agony is focused on death in which a dying person could not pretend to feel anything else besides agony(Ahmadi 1). The physical process of dying in the second stanza as the speaker says, 

¨The eyes glaze once -- 

and that is Death¨(Dickinson 4) 

depicts the image seen by others of the one who is dying as it looks like they just stare off into space once they die. The agony, pain, and emotion on their face, once they die, are described in the second to last line saying ¨The Beads upon the Forehead''(Dickinson 4). Beads are described to reference death in someone due to the suffering someone encounters while dying. With the unknown and curiosity of life and what happens after, the lies told and hidden, don't matter, for the truth of humanity is death and not feigned. As Dickinson has experienced the deaths of the people around her, she is believed to know that if there is death, there will also be pain that comes with it (Berke 1). 

As you die you start to slowy drift off from the world that you one lived, watching your last few seconds of life go passed you like a ball rolling on the ground. It keeps moving in a circle until it finally just, stops.  The poem ¨a clock stopped¨ uses a clock to resemble a heart as it dies and slowly stops working. Death is an enemy in this poem, one to cause pain and attack to make someone die(Ahmadi 1). As the hands stop working, it is like a heart when it stops beating. A skilled clockmaker, someone who has been making clocks the majority of their life, knowing every screw placement cant make the clock work again. Just like a doctor who has gone to school for years and has every degree needed to save lives, tries to bring someone back to life, restarting the heart, but can't. When the speaker says ¨Into degreeless noon- 

It will not stir for doctors¨(Dickinson 1) 

It demonstrates that the clock can not be fixed just as the human can not be helped. Going back to look at a glimpse of his last moment, that pause of life and death that can't be postponed (Ahmadi 1). When Dickinson writes 

¨Cant put the puppet bowing -- 

That just now dangles still --¨(Dickinson 1) 

it refers to someone who can't move, like a puppet, is motionless, and in need of others to move them. This is like the cuckoo puppet on a clock that used to swing and dangle on the clock but it is now still (Interesting Literature 1). As someone dies, all-time stops, everything is still, cold, and is described in her line ¨This pendulum of snow¨(Dickinson 1) refers to the fresh dead, non-moving body, slowly getting colder by the second as death takes over them. As those others are covered in red as said “Then quivered out of decimals”(Dickinson 1) while moving the “stopped clock”. In the last stanza where it says ¨Decades of arrogance between, 

The dial life and him¨(Dickinson 1)

it reflects on the life that once was living as it approaches death. While youre living your life death seems so far away, but the truth is, the clock could stop at any minute.

Although death is seen as a mystery, it is still unfortunate and in other words, unfavorable. Unlike other poems, Dickinson's ¨Death sets a thing significant¨ does not use metaphors or similes to show that the feelings and emotions someone feels from losing another are truly incomparable(Ahmadi 1). It causes people to think of every detail they didn't pay attention to before of the person who has died. The things we don't notice before, we do now that they are gone.

¨To ponder little workmanships, 

In crayon or in wool, 

With ¨This was last her fingers did¨, 

Industrious until¨(Dickinson 3) 

Dickinson's second stanza depicts someone reflecting on a life that once lived but will never exist anymore. No more seeing them every day, playing with them, or creating new memories with them. It's all old memories that you will hold onto which is all you have left of someone after they pass. Some memories you have with a person who has passed away, you would have never thought to look back on before their passing which is described by Emily as  

¨The thimble weighed too heavy, 

The stitches stopped themselves, 

And then ´t was put among the dust 

Upon the closet shelves.¨(Dickinson 3). 

Now that meaningless memory has now been the core of your joy that was given to you. In her friend's passing in this poem, she is reminded of them in every little thing she sees. Flashbacks and recollection accrued from the remembrance of all that friend had touched or made(Ahmadi 1). Knowing there gone can leave someone bereft but laying your hands on there belongings can help someone cope with grief. Those objects that once belonged to them are still there, giving you the decision on when you want to let them pass away(Berleson 1). Keeping those objects and memories alive will in a way keep those who have passed away an opportunity to exist.

Dickinson starts off her poem ¨Because I could not stop for death¨ by looking at death as if it was a suiter as she uses ¨he¨ pronouns in the second line saying ¨Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me –¨(Dickinson 2). Death is described as a kind man who is there to escort Emily in a ¨carriage¨ (Ahmadi 1)  to take her to the afterlife. Using the word kind to describe Death is different than how you would normally describe someone who takes lives away. In Dickinson's case, it could refer to her not being scared of Death and could even refer to her being ready for death to take her away.  As Death takes the speaker to see every phase of life in a carriage ride as described 

¨We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring–

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the setting sun¨ (Dickinson 2)

which could be like when you would see your life flash before your eyes before you died. The speaker and Death reach a halt that is assumed to be her own grave as if she already died (Howard 1). This poem also brings the afterlife curiosity into character as it seems to be unanswerable just like most of Dickinson's poems. 

Yet death will always come, even when you don't want it to, and even when you wouldn't expect it to. Dickinson has discribed her looks at death in the four poems that where analysed in witch each of them where uniqley and carfully worded to show the different perspectives on Death. Weather it is discribed as time completly stopping, the only true thing a person will experience, all the emotions and grief givin from the loss of somoenes death, or even a real person. She makes it very clear that Death will stop for you as you will live for an eternity with him.