It Beckons and It Baffles: An Analysis of Death, Dying and What Comes After in Five Poems by Emily Dickinson

Transcription

1 1 This essay is a sample only. The annotations explain how this writer effectively organizes and communicates ideas. The content of this essay is not to be reproduced in whole or part. Use of the ideas or words in this essay is an act of plagiarism, which is subject to academic integrity policy at Trent University and other academic institutions. It Beckons and It Baffles: An Analysis of Death, Dying and What Comes After in Five Poems by Emily Dickinson Good, narrowed, focused topic. No general statement about life is made or is necessary. The essay is about five poems by Dickinson, and right from the beginning, its focus is on that. Emily Dickinson was captivated by the riddle of death, and several of her poems deal with it in different ways. There are many poems that describe, in the first person, the process of dying right up to and including the moment of death, often recalled from a vantage point after death in some sort of afterlife. As well, several poems speculate more generally about what lies beyond the visible world our senses perceive in life. This essay examines four of Dickinson s poems that are about dying and death and one that is more speculative. Two are straightforwardly about dying, while the other two present dying symbolically, but taken together they show many similarities. Death is experienced matter-of-factly and without fear and with a full consciousness that registers details and describes them clearly. All the poems examined hint at an afterlife which is not described in traditionally Christian terms but which is not contradictory to Christian belief either. Yet death remains a riddle. While one poem may emphasize an afterlife of peace, silence and anchors at rest, others only hint at an ongoing consciousness, and one both asserts that something beyond life exists while also saying that belief is really only a narcotic that cannot completely still the pain of doubt. Dying, the moment of death, and what comes after preoccupy Dickinson: in these poems, death and eternity both beckon and baffle (Dickinson, This

2 2 World is not Conclusion 5). The thesis of the essay is one sentence, but it may be more. Note that this thesis statement does not list supporting points; a good thesis statement provides the organizing principle of the essay, and the essay writer has decided to let the supporting points appear throughout the body of the essay. English essays use MLA documentation style; the author s last name and the page number are put in parentheses. For verse, line numbers are used. As the essay discusses five poems by the same poet, each title is also included in the citation. As all the poems are by Dickinson, only the first citation needs to include her last name. Because I could not stop for Death is the first poem examined that describes the process of dying right up to and past the moment of death, in the first person. Good topic sentence here. The sentence makes a clear claim that the rest of the paragraph develops through details, quotations and analysis. This process is described symbolically. The speaker, walking along the road of life is picked up and given a carriage ride out of town to her destination, the graveyard and death. The speaker, looking back, says that she could not stop for Death / [so] He kindly stopped for her (1-2). Dickinson personifies death as a kindly (2) masculine being with civility (6). As the two slowly dr[i]ve (5) down the road of life, the speaker observes life in its simplicity: the School, (9), the Fields of Gazing Grain (11), and the Setting Sun (12), and realizes that this road out of town is the road out of life. The road s ending at a House that seemed / A Swelling of the Ground (17-18) is a life s ending at death, Eternity (24). Verse quotations of two or three lines are also incorporated into the sentence structure, but with the lines separated by a space, slash (/), space. As the text of the essay makes clear which poem is being quoted, only the line number is needed in the citation. Verse quotations of a single line or shorter are incorporated into the structure of the sentence. Once in the House that is the speaker s grave, that is, after death, the speaker remains conscious. Her death is not experienced as a loss of consciousness, a sleep or oblivion. Her sense of time does change though:

3 3 Since then 'tis Centuries and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity (20-24) This essay has many quotations, and that is fine for an English essay. The words from the poems illustrate and, therefore, support the writer s analysis. Many short, pertinent quotations work best although occasionally a larger chunk of text is needed. It has become difficult for the speaker to tell the difference between a century and a day. But she knows it has been Centuries since then, so the implication is that her consciousness has lived on in an eternal afterlife. Notice that the essay writer does not just let the quotation do all the work. The quotation is followed by the writer s analysis of the quoted words and argument about their implication. This is the best way to use textual evidence. There are other Dickinson poems in which the speaker s death is described, but not from a vantage point of Centuries after the moment of death. Rather, the speaker describes the moments before, and moment of, her death, with only hints that there is a life or ongoing consciousness after death. I heard a Fly buzz - when I died describes the deathbed experience: I heard a Fly buzz - when I died The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air Between the Heaves of Storm - (1-4) Verse quotations of more than three lines begin on a new line. Each line is indented an extra five spaces from the left margin. No quotations marks are added. The spatial arrangement of the original lines is reproduced accurately from the source.

4 4 The speaker is lying on her death bed in a still room, surrounded by loved ones who have been weeping and who recognize that the moment of death is at hand: The Eyes around - had wrung them dry - / And Breaths were gathering firm / For that last Onset (5-7). As in the previous poem, death is personified as a male being; she and her loved ones are waiting for when the King / Be witnessed - in the Room (5-6). Unlike in the previous poem, the speaker is speaking only up to the moment of death, which is not depicted symbolically as a carriage ride to a graveyard, but as a conventional deathbed. And unlike in the previous poem, the actual moment of death is described: one sense fails, sight, and one sense, hearing, briefly become more intense: and then it was There interposed a Fly With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz Between the light - and me And then the Windows failed - and then I could not see to see - (11-16) Because this long quotation begins in the middle of a line, the first, partial line is positioned where it is in the original source not shifted to the left margin. At the moment of death, sound interposes itself between the light of life perceived by sight, and then sight fails completely. The moment of death is described as the intense sound of buzzing and the dying of the light. The ending is abrupt but the end punctuation is not a period or full stop, only a dash. The sense of time in I heard a Fly buzz - when I died is different than in Because I could not stop for Death. This poem describes a moment or two, an instant in time that is experienced and described intensely and then is over. The poem does not mention or evoke a

5 5 sense of time passing over a duration - whether of a day or a century. It is a poem of a moment: the moment of death. The ending can be interpreted in two ways. It can be seen as not implying a full stop to life and, therefore, may suggest there is a continuation after the moment of death. But it can also be seen as an abrupt end. As the poem ends at the moment of death and there is nothing about what comes after, as there is in Because I could not stop for Death, whether there is a life beyond death, or whether consciousness continues after death, is left more open. However, as the speaker describes her moment of death using the past tense, this could suggest that her consciousness goes on after that moment in the same way it does in Because I could not stop for Death. This is a summary paragraph, so it contains no quoting. In this paragraph, the essay writer extends the analysis by comparing two poems already discussed in detail. The reader understands the analysis because of the previous discussion and quoting. The Sun kept setting setting still is remarkably similar to I heard a Fly buzz - when I died in several respects. Again, it depicts the moment of death and the speaker is very clear about what is happening: 'Tis Dying I am doing (17). As with I heard a Fly buzz when I died, the process of dying involves a change is the speaker s sight: The Sun kept setting setting still No Hue of Afternoon Upon the Village I perceived From House to House 'twas Noon (1-4) Good use of transitional or connective words and phrases in this paragraph. Words like again, as with, in this case, and in a similar way lead the reader through the paragraph s points gracefully and easily, indicate the relationships between points, and maintain a sense of movement, thus creating that elusive quality we call flow. However, in this case, the speaker, while seeing that the sun is setting and that it must, therefore,

6 6 be at least late afternoon, perceives what she sees as noon, implying that she is seeing a brightness as of the sun right overhead. The next stanza is structured in a similar way to the first: The dusk kept dropping, dropping still; No dew upon the grass, But only on my forehead stopped, And wandered in my face. (5-8) A pattern begins to be discernible. The dusk is dropping, the light should be darkening, and there is no dew on the grass (as there would be in the early morning), yet the speaker is seeing bright light and has dew on her forehead and face. Then other symptoms become apparent to her although this time she is not perceiving anything beyond herself, meaning, perhaps, that whatever attack she is having is enveloping her more completely: My feet kept drowsing, drowsing still, My fingers were awake; Yet why so little sound myself Unto my seeming make? (9-12) Similar to I heard a Fly buzz when I died, the poem moves from the speaker s focus on the world beyond herself, the room in which she is dying, the village she is looking on, to her focus on herself. In I heard a Fly buzz, although death is expected, the actual moment of death happens suddenly; the speaker s sense of sound heightens as the light fails and it is over. In this poem, the process of dying is heralded by the change in the speaker s perception of light. The speaker realizes her perceptions have become unnatural and that something is happening to her, and then her focus narrows to her body and what is happening to it. By the end of the poem, her sense of light changes again: How well I knew the light before! / I could not see it now (13-

7 7 14). Now, as for the speaker in I heard a Fly buzz, the light has faded, darkness is setting in: T is dying, I am doing; but / I m not afraid to know (16). The poems share, as well, a rather detached, unemotional, matter-of-fact acceptance of death. Death is described neutrally; the speaker in the Sun kept setting setting still realizes she is dying and she is not afraid of what she knows. This poem ends with a period or full stop. As a result, there is less sense of an ongoing after-death consciousness in this poem than in the previous two although the fact that most of it is in the past tense suggests that the speaker may be conscious after death to be able to look back on the process of dying as her past. However, the last two lines are written in the present tense, which could suggest, on the other hand, that the speaker is speaking at the very moment of death, looking back on the recent past when she began to die, not from a point afterwards, looking back on it, as is the case in Because I could not stop for Death and I heard a Fly buzz - when I died. But if those two poems of death at least imply an afterlife or after-consciousness, what kind is afterlife is it? Is it the Christian kind? This is an unusual topic sentence as it is a question, followed by another short question. The questions do indicate what the paragraph s topic or controlling idea is as they raise questions which the paragraph must attempt to answer. This variation works here but shouldn t be overused. This World is not Conclusion does not describe the experience of death or the aftermath of losing a loved one, but shares the speaker s musings on what lies beyond This World (1): This World is not Conclusion. A Species stands beyond Invisible, as Music But positive, as Sound It beckons, and it baffles (1-5)

8 8 The speaker seems to sense or apprehend the Species that stands beyond in a similar way to the way we hear music, which is also invisible. So, the species is invisible but exists as invisible music exists. We hear music when we sense it through sound, so, in a similar way, this species can be apprehended, and it is as positive, as Sound (4). Notice how the shorter quotations are interwoven into the writer s sentences, showing that the writer s ideas are firmly grounded in the text. One of the overtly Christian references in the poem is the word crucifixion: To gain it [faith], Men have borne / Contempt of Generations / And Crucifixion (10-12). This may refer to Christ s crucifixion, or it may refer to other Christian martyrs, although the speaker does not seem to find this kind of thing inspiring. The speaker seems to suggest that when crucifixion is shown - / Faith slips -- and laughs, and rallies - / Blushes, if any see -. / Plucks at a twig of Evidence - / And asks a Vane, the way - (12-16). If the Vane is a weather vane, which changes direction with a change in the direction of the wind, the speaker does not see faith as particularly strong or steadfast. This may be why she implies that Much Gesture, from the Pulpit - / Strong Hallelujahs roll (17-18) are really only Narcotics that cannot still the Tooth / That nibbles at the soul (19-20). So, while This World is not Conclusion begins with strong statements, by its end it has undermined its assertions; ultimately, what is beyond this world seems to baffle as much as it beckons (5). In I heard a Fly buzz - when I died, those in the room are waiting for the King to take the speaker away into death, and this King may be a reference to God or Christ the King. But as with the reference to the crucifixion in This World is not Conclusion, this equally may not be a Christian reference. The King may have a closer resemblance to the male Death of

9 9 Because I could not stop for Death. So, the question of what this afterlife is like and how much it is like the Christian idea of heaven remains open. None of these poems show much fear or horror at death. In The Sun kept setting setting still, the speaker knows she is dying and she tells us she is not afraid to know (16). After all, Because I could not stop for Death clearly makes the connection between death and eternity. The allegorical poem On this wondrous sea also contains the word eternity, and it is also about dying and the moment of death. The speaker in the first stanza is sailing on the wondrous (1) sea of life hailing the pilot of a ship: Ho! Pilot, ho! (3). According to The Canadian Oxford Dictionary English Dictionary, a pilot is a person qualified to take charge of a ship entering or leaving harbour, moving through dangerous waters, etc. ( Pilot ). A dictionary has been consulted to define a quoted word of whose meaning the essay writer was not sure. Not knowing what a quoted word means or misunderstanding it can undermine an analysis. Conversely, a thorough understanding of how a word is used in its context can deepen understanding and help to extend and develop the analysis. Understanding this allows the reader to better grasp the symbolism of the poem. The poem suggests that the speaker must be approaching the end of the voyage and is hailing the pilot to guide her to the shore / Where no breakers roar, / Where the storm is o er (4-6). The speaker of the second stanza is the pilot, who does know where this shore can be found: In the silent west / Many sails at rest, / Their anchors fast (7-9) and offers to guide the first speaker there: Thither I pilot thee (10). The image the poem offers of this final shore is a place of peace and rest, a place where no breakers roar in the silent west, where there are many other sails at rest, / their anchors fast. The last two lines could be spoken by either speaker or both: Land, ho! Eternity! / Ashore at last! (11-12).

10 10 On this wondrous sea offers a more appealing image of eternity than that of the conscious sleep in a grave found in Because I could not stop for Death. Eternity can be found on a distant shore, beyond the wondrous sea and its storms, and it is a silent place of rest and stability, where the anchors are fast. As well, there is a pilot, one who can guide the wanderer of the seas to her final shore, at last! Those two last words strongly suggest that eternity is a place where one might long to go and feel relief and even happiness at arriving there. This eternity is appealing and a kind of heaven even if angels and God are not mentioned (although perhaps the pilot can be interpreted as God). This concluding paragraph does not just repeat the introduction. It pulls together the main ideas contained in the entire essay to try to point out their larger significance. Rather than a point-by-point list, it is a summary of what it all means taken together. In many ways, On this wondrous sea sums up the attitude toward death and eternity seen in all the poems examined. Death is experienced without fear, and life is shown as leading up to death and eternity. What exactly this eternity is like is only hinted at in most of these poems. So, what is beyond continues to baffle, but none of the poems present death as extinction with nothing beyond; rather what is beyond beckons. Using significant, short quotations from the poems in the conclusion is very effective. As these quotations have already appeared in the essay and been properly cited, they do not need to be cited again. Death and eternity are something known, a grave that is a house, a consciousness living on, a shore to which we come at last after a life both stormy and wondrous. You will have noticed that this is not a five-paragraph essay. There is, in fact, no limit on the number of paragraphs you can or should write in an essay. Instead, this essay supports the thesis by moving from one poem to another, analyzing each separately while linking back to ones already discussed, in however many paragraphs are needed to do the job effectively; in this case, the number is eleven.

11 11 The Works Cited list is organized alphabetically and uses a hanging indent. Notice that it is doublespaced throughout. Learn more about MLA referencing in the ASC s Online Documentation Guide. Works Cited Dickinson, Emily. Because I could not stop for Death. Poets org: From the Academy of American Poets, Web. 5 March I heard a Fly buzz - when I died. Poets org: From the Academy of American Poets Web. 5 March On this wondrous sea. PoemHunter.com, Web. 5 March The Sun kept setting setting still. PoemHunter.com Web. 5 March This World is not Conclusion. PoemHunter.com Web. 5 March Pilot. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Ed. Katherine Barber. Toronto: Oxford UP, Print. As five poems by Emily Dickinson are listed, there are five entries, one for each poem. The poet s name is given in the first entry, and for the other four entries, three un-spaced hyphens and a period are given instead, followed, in each entry, by the poem s title in quotation marks. The five Dickinson entries are alphabetical by poem title.