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On Emily Dickinson’s Poems of Death
06 Deng Heyan
1.0 Background Information

1.1 Cultural Background

Emily Dickinson, also know as Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, the American best-know female poet, was one of the greatest author in American literature. She born on December 10, 1830 into Calvinist family of Amherst, Massachusetts and on may 15, 1886.Emily Dickinson took her last breath at the age of 56.
In 19th century, Transcendentalism arose in American. It was a rebellion against the solemn Calvinism. Man was capable of approaching the Supreme Being through individual efforts of self-reliance. The Transcendentalists believed that all beings in the world were subordinate to one being, which they termed as “Over Soul”. The idea of “Over Soul” was the core of the Transcendentalism. Dickinson read Emerson appreciatively, who became a pervasive and, in a sense, formative influence over her. As George F. Whicher notes, "Her sole function was to test the Transcendentalist ethic in its application to the inner life"（ David Marr，1988 ）.
Conrad Alken called Dickinson “the most perfect flower of New England Transcendentalism.”（Hu, J, 2001） Emerson’s Transcendentalism had great influence upon Dickinson’s significance of death poems, which may be classified into the following aspect: her pursuit of immortality and the soul and the gradual skepticism towards God.
Emily Dickinson is not in total agreement with Emerson's transcendentalist views. I believe her poems lack the ebullience of Emerson's writings. However, like Emerson, her poems exhibit the significance of disqualifying society's "dos and don'ts" (i.e. traditional rules) and, instead, confirming the importance of an individual's soul and morals. One can see that Dickinson has lived by these views not only in her poems, but also in her life. For example, she was an educated woman. As such, she refused to be inferior in a male-dominated society. Like Emerson, she believed that "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." For instance, in her poem, "Much Madness is divinest Sense--," she explains how the rule of the majority can become a form of tyranny in her image of "handled with a chain." One can see how true this image was in recent history. When the Grand Old Party wanted Bill Clinton out of office, they used their majority rule to repress the minority's rights, in turn, becoming tyrants. She also strongly believed that "the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." Although this image might be realistically difficult, it is none the less true.
Moreover, in her poem "The Soul selects her own Society," Dickinson shows us that no matter what, she will never do what society expects from her as long as it is not in agreement with what she wants. She shows us that she has selected her own place of seclusion, "The Soul selects her own society" and by no means will a "divine majority" extract that freedom of seclusion from her even if "an Emperor be kneeling upon her Mat." She will "shut the door...Present no more...close the Valves of her attention-Like Stone." Nothing can stir Dickinson's secluded lifestyle due to her strength of character and inner spirit. In fact, her seclusion and knowing that she is safe with a strong spirit keeps her sane. She believed that without her seclusion, she will inevitably go mad. She shows us this concept in her poem "I felt a funeral, in my brain." Dickinson describes how madness takes over her body when "Mourners to and fro/Kept treading-treading-till it seemed/That Sense was breaking through." The mourners represent society invading her seclusion. As they invade, her sense of reason breaks through, meaning it leaves her until a "Plank of Reason" breaks during her burial. As such, we know that Dickinson, to survive, needs her individuality. This was what Emerson preached in "Self-Reliance." He preached that the only way to find value in life was through one's soul. Emily Dickinson disqualified society and reiterated the importance of individualism was not in existence, people would die of insanity .Emily Dickinson attempted to change the 19th century’s view of one’s life and one’s soul.
1.2EmilyDickinson’s contribution
Emily Dickinson’s entire life was spent in her house except a couple of trips to Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. And there she led an inactive life of a recluse without being married .There are 1,775 poems the created in her life .Most of them were written in the late years just before her death. Covering the theme of her personal feeling and experiences which were far away from society .Short as they are, the poems are full of fresh and strange images as well as profound concern about the nature and the essence of human beings.
During the time in American history known as the, several poets began to stray from the traditional methods of writing poetry. Among these poets were Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. While the writer's led drastically different lifestyles and had drastically different styles of writing, the messages they presented through their writing were often surprisingly similar. Whitman's poem "Song of Myself, No.6" and Dickinson's poem "This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies" are examples of pieces which, on the surface, appear completely different, but in fact contain several similarities. Indeed, several similarities and differences can be found between these two poems.
While these works by Whitman and Dickinson are different in many ways, a few similarities can be found between the two. The most obvious of these similarities involves the themes and subject matter. Both poems present the idea that life is a continuous and constant circle and that no one is ever really dead as long as he is remembered. Each also suggests that Earth is a living thing which all humans are a piece of in both life and death. Another likeness which can be found in these two poems is the imagery used by the authors. Through Whitman's detailed and vivid description, he allows the reader to form a clear picture of the scene in his head. Likewise, Dickinson use of personification causes the poem to come alive in the reader's mind. Indeed, by observing the themes and imagery found in these two poems, one can see that they do contain some similarities.
Though these similarities do exist, there are also several quite obvious differences between the two. The most noticeable distinguish involves the length of the poems. While Whitman's "Song of Myself" is quite lengthy, giving detailed and wordy descriptions, Dickinson's "This quiet dust was Gentlemen and Ladies" is much more concise and to the point. While Whitman tends to leave little to the imagination, Dickinson uses very few, carefully selected words, forcing the reader contemplate the meaning of the poem and create his own image of the scene being described. Another outstanding difference between these poems is the rhyme scheme and meter used. Whitman's poem contains no obvious meter or rhyme, but is written freely and without any apparent structure. Dickinson, on the other hand, uses a slant rhyme scheme, as well as an obvious meter. Without a doubt, the styles of writing used by Dickinson and Whitman in these poems contain several differences.
Different from Whitman, who keeps his eye n society at large . Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. Her poems are endless or all-inclusive catalogues. Dickinson’s poetry is concise direct and simple, she was a courageous experimentalist. Her poetry abounds in telling images a salient feature of her technique was a severe economy of expression. She became with Stephen Grane the precursor of Imagist movement. Her poetry is a clear illustration of her religious-ethical and political-social ideals. Her basic tone was tragic.
Surely both of these authors will forever be remembered for their contributions to the American literature of the 1800's and to the poetry of today.
2.0The Influences on Dickinson Poems of Death
Up from ancient time to the present century, the theme of death has been a permanent topic and has carried people’s emotions or understandings towards the complex life. From the Chinese ideologist Laozi to Socrates and to Ernest Hemingway, death has been described as a mystery that attracts and challenges human beings.
But what interests the people of the world is that how the theme of death could be managed by Emily Dickinson who led isolated life till her death she held the conventional ideology and understanding on death and even carried it forward to a great height with her unique ideas, creative imagination and astonishing perceptive power.
Emily Dickinson wrote about 1,800 poems and nearly one-third of her poems were about death, this theme lies at the center of her poetic world. There are some factors that affect her thought and theme. First, it related to her personality. Her poems are usually based on her own experience, her sorrows and joys, and illustrated the fact that one could take a single household an inactive life. Form here we can know that she is imaginative, creative, attentive, original though she is solitary, reclusive.
2.1The death of her beloved
The later years of Dickinson’s life were primarily spent in mourning because of several deaths within the time frame of a few years. Emily’s father died in 1874, her nephew Gilbert died in 1883, and both Charles Wadsworth (Emily’s lover) and Emily’s mother died in 1882. Over those years, many of the most influential and precious friendships of Emily’s passed away, and that gave way to the more concentrated obsession with death in her poetry.
As a result of Emily Dickinson’s life of solitude, she was able to focus on her world more sharply than other authors of her time —contemporary authors who had no effect on her writing. Emily was original and innovative in her poetry. Many of her poems were completed and written on scraps of paper, such as old grocery lists. Eventually when her poetry was published .They were grouped into classes— friends, nature, love, and death. Many of Emily Dickinson’s poems that were written about death reflect on how she felt about it and how it was an influence in her life.
Because death was occurring so often in the life of Emily Dickinson, I have chosen to write about the influence of it in her poetry. Two poems in which have been found, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “The Bustle in a House”, can be associated with each other by one of the aforementioned categories: death.
Many of the poems written by Emily Dickinson reflect on how she felt about death because it was such an influence in her life. Because she lost close people to her such as her mother, father, nephew, lover, and many friends, Emily took advantage of her talents to write poetry as a way to express her feelings towards death; readers of her poetry can see the influences her life had on what she wrote about. Authors of poetry often write to express such feelings that they have about their life. Whether it is to have a hobby, do something for leisure time, or to express one’s feelings, everyone has their own motive.
2.2 Religion
One of the major reasons for Emily Dickinson interest in death, then, was it’s close relation with religion, as she viewed it the relationship between death and religion became for her, in fact, a circular one. Her basic feelings about immortality were ones of doubt and apprehension. Then, it is because her religious-ethical and political-social ideas. Calvinism, with its doctrine of predestination and its pessimism pressured her during her childhood and adolescence and colored her works so that her basic tone is tragic.
The Impact of Christianity on Emily Dickinson, doubtlessly, the very significance of Emily Dickinson’s exploration of death is the meaning of death. She explains in her poems, while the times in which she lived in a period when Christianity was having a deeper impact on people’s mind than ever. Though all her family members were pious religious believers, Emily Dickinson couldn’t completely accept the Christian doctrine after being enlightened by the Transcendentalist forerunner-Ralph Waldo Emerson. Of course, this kind of rebellions woman is nothing but a heretic in people’s eyes. But she basically agreed on the principle of Christianity on death, which says that man is born with is saved will go up to heaven and the others will go down to hell. So, death is the very key moment to decide one’s way up or down. In this sense, her own words could be accounted for the idea that death is somehow the hyphen that connects the limited life and the permanent death. In her mind, one’s soul only takes seconds to travel through one world to another world, and death is not an end but a bridge to the permanent life. (Zhu Gang,2003; P294)
Her understanding of death is quite a Christian one Death only means the end of one’s temporary life but a new permanent life that begins with no sin. Another proof is the influence from Bible because many of her poems resemble hymns in form. One of the important things that religion dose is that it makes loss, mortality, and especially death meaningful. Puritans preach that death is the most important problem in life and they try to think about what death means .Dickinson worked at the answer to this fundamental question. As a puritan, she thought that she would understand what life mean if she could understand what death mean. She faced the same problem like that of Anne Bradstreet, but Dickinson did not answer it in the same way, as she was not sure whether there is a heaven.
Dickinson enjoyed the King James Version of the Bible, as well as authors such as English writers William Shakespeare, John Milton, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, and Thomas Carlyle, Dickinson’s early style shows the strong influence of Barrett Browning, Scottish poet Robert Browning, and English poets John Keats and George Herbert. In the early stages of her career, Dickinson’s handwritten lyrics imitated the formalities of print, and her poetic techniques were conventional, but she later began to attend to the visual aspects of her work. For example, she arranged and broke lines of verse in highly unusual ways to underscore meaning and she created extravagantly shaped letters of the alphabet to emphasize or play with a poem’s sense. She also incorporated cutouts from novels, magazines, and even the Bible to augment her own use of language. Although few of Dickinson’s poems were formally published during her lifetime, she herself “published” by sending out at least one-third of her poems in the more than 1,000 letters she wrote to at least 100 different correspondents
2.3Personality
Emily Dickinson's unusual character and style has made her become one of the world's most famous poets. In her poems, she expresses h