A certainty of life: Death

Two of Emily Dickenson’s poems, [Because I could not stop for Death] (1254) and [After great pain, a formal feeling comes] (932) are both about one of life’s few certainties: death. In Dickenson's poems, death is often personified, and illustrates a very different view on death than the traditional horror movie. Through the use of characters, imagery, and setting, Dickenson creates amazingly powerful poems that offer a creative and yet extremely different perspective on death.

The characters in each of these two poems allow us two extremely different perspectives on death. One perspective is how it feels to be dead and look at life the other being how to deal with death when you are the one who is left behind. Also the different perspectives regarding the fear people have of dying and the emotions that surround it. In [Because I could not stop for Death], death appears as kind and compassionate. The woman fears death until she finally meets it and is welcomed by it “He kindly stopped for me” (2). The word kindly gives a vision of a kind and gentle man, a friend and a companion. In [After great pain, a formal feeling comes] the feeling is quit different in that it depicts the suffering of the people left behind. It shows death as cold and harsh and something that causes pain and suffering. Even though the emotions in both poems are completely different both show time passage as a very important part of death, in that death tends remove the realization of time passage. In [Because I could not stop for Death], the woman has been dead for what we assume has been a long time and has been unaware of time. Death and the speaker ride along with absolutely no concept of the passage of time. They are not hurried, as they have forever to reach their destination. This is stated in the line “We slowly drove - He knew no haste” (5). In [After great pain, a formal feeling comes] the lines "The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore, / And Yesterday, or Centuries before?" (3-4) show that time no longer seems clear. The pain has made the passage of time stand still. The speaker feels uncertain about when she first experienced the pain; it could have happened "yesterday" or hundreds of years ago.

The different perspectives on death are emphasized further through the structure of the poems. In [Because I could not stop for Death] the woman has the opportunity to see that death is not something that should be feared by having the opportunity to revisit her life. The speaker has been allowed the luxury of rest and relaxation “And I had put away / My labour had my leisure too” (6-7). Therefore, the woman and death share a meaningful journey together as they stroll down memory lane, as death allows the speaker to mirror the passage of life with things familiar to her. The opposite is true in [After great pain, a formal feeling comes]; this poem has no speaker, no “I”. The sufferer is dehumanized, and is described in terms of body parts - nerves, heart, and feet. The sufferer is an object that depicts suffering and pain. To the sufferer time hangs heavy or drags slowly and there is no one to comfort him or her and give them hope for the future. This gives the poem a very numb sense. In [Because I could not stop for Death] the structure allows you build an emotional connection to the woman and you are able to visualize her. In [After great pain, a formal feeling comes] you do not have anyone to connect with. It is as though you are an outsider looking in on a terrible tragedy versus being part of the journey.

Being made to feel like you are either part of the journey or an outsider is partially important because of the vivid imagery in both of these poems. In [Because I could not stop for Death] the drive symbolizes the woman leaving life, as she progresses from childhood, maturity and finally to her death. You feel as though you are part of this journey because you are allowed to see the same images that the woman sees. You get the opportunity to revisit her life with her. The images of children and grain suggest youth and they also depict the progress of human life. Death is made to seem even less threatening in the fourth stanza when her grave is depicted as a house “We paused before a House that seemed / A swelling of the ground” (17-18). This again gives us a feeling of calmness and tranquility as the woman passes into eternity. In [After great pain, a formal feeling comes] Dickinson brilliantly recreates the suffering we undergo after some terrible, excruciating event in our lives such as death. In the first two lines, "After great pain, a formal feeling comes / The nerves sit ceremoniously like tombs” (1-2) the speaker claims that the nerves are the first part of the body to register the pain. The nerves become stiff and empty and cold. In the second stanza it continues with cold, harsh images: "The feet mechanical go round / Of Ground or Air or Ought" (5-6) showing that the speakers feet move mechanically, not wilfully; the speaker is just going through the motions of life, not really feeling what is happening. These images have created a sense of emotional emptiness surrounding death.

In conclusion Emily Dickenson had the rare talent to be able to transform death, a normally unwelcome subject matter, into creative and highly thoughtful pieces of literature. Dickenson's poems show us new ways of looking at death and its effects.

Works Citied

Dickenson, Emily. [Because I could not stop for Death] The Norton Introduction to Literature. 8th Edition. Eds. Jerome Beaty et al. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002, 1254.

Dickenson, Emily. [After great pain, a formal feeling comes] The Norton Introduction to Literature. 8th Edition. Eds. Jerome Beaty et al. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002, 932.