Thinking Outside the Box of Death

2nd Period, I am SO PROUD of you!!!

Together we reached the conclusion that Emily Dickinson is not just wishing for death, envisioning a happier afterlife, or acknowledging an easy passing into death. INSTEAD, we combined

• TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
• Multiple Poems
• Knowledge of the author's time period 
• (medical and scientific discoveries of the 1800s)
• (Civil War being fought)
• Quotes from LITERARY CRITICISM

to come up with a different and more accurate evaluation of ED's death poems:

Emily Dickinson's Death Poetry suggests science cannot answer the mystery of death and only those who have been through death have the true knowledge of it. Therefore, her poems embrace the already dead by praising their knowledge of what life continues in life's next stage: Death.

The Literary Criticism:

Wilson, Eric. "Dickinson's Chemistry of Death." American Transcendental Quarterly 12.1 (1998): 27-43. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 18 Nov 2010.

The Poems (R. W. Franklin Edition):

479

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –

The Dews drew quivering and Chill –

For only Gossamer, my Gown –

My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –

The Roof was scarcely visible –

The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads

Were toward Eternity –

524

It feels a Shame to be Alive –

When Men so brave – are dead –

One envies the Distinguished Dust –

Permitted – such a Head –

The Stone – that tells defending Whom

This Spartan put away

What little of Him we – possessed

In Pawn for Liberty –

The Price is great – Sublimely paid –

Do we deserve – a Thing –

That lives – like Dollars – must be piled

Before we may obtain? 

Are we that wait – sufficient worth –

That such Enormous Pearl

As life – dissolved be – for Us –

In Battle's – horrid Bowl? 

It may be – a Renown to live –

I think the Men who die –

Those unsustained – Saviors –

Present Divinity –

591

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 -

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry -

And Breaths were gathering firm

For that last Onset - when the King

Be witnessed - in the Room -

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away

What portion of me be

Assignable - 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 -

659

The Province of the Saved

Should be the Art—To save—

Through Skill obtained in Themselves—

The Science of the Grave

No Man can understand

But He that hath endured

The Dissolution—in Himself—

That Man—be qualified

To qualify Despair

To Those who failing new—

Mistake Defeat for Death—Each time—

Till acclimated—to—