Emily Dickinson was not known as a profound poet until after her death. Her poems were heavily influenced due to the people around her and also what she has encountered in life. The subject of death was not unusual for the time period that Dickinson was in. The people were heavily religious and were always prepared for death, since others were dying due to physical illnesses and accidents. Not to mention that she also lived next to a cemetery. Each person has their own meaning of the word death, ranging from losing a job to getting married, and we can explore that through literature and the emotional appeals. The poems, “I heard a fly buzz – when I died” and “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson, explores the theme of the uncertainty of death. While death in the first poem contemplates the literal involvement with death, while the latter poem introduces the concepts death in a denotative sense of the word.
In the first stanza of “I heard a Fly buzz,” Emily Dickinson tells the readers that this will be a ghost story since we know that the narrator is actually dead. The narrator describes the scene before and during their death. Dickinson describes that “I heard a Fly buzz” (1); when usually death is described as peaceful and quiet. “The Stillness in the Room” (Dickinson 2), can be taken as the moment right before the narrator dies. This could also be seen as the saying, “the calm before the storm.” So, the narrator has not officially passed on from their deathbed. Then we get the literal sense of the death when the narrator paints a picture of their last breaths: “Between the Heaves of the Storm” (Dickinson 4). The “heaves” are the strangled sounds one may hear when witnessing the last gasps of breath of a dying person. The reader has now passed on and can tell the readers what is going to happen before she is taken away in another life.
What can happen when the death is occurring? The narrator is surrounded by people in the second stanza since there are multiple “eyes” gathered around the reader (5). This can be interpreted that someone either ill has died or someone of greater age has passed. Dickinson grew up in a time period where one is surrounded by death and cannot escape due to the amount of diseases/accidents going around. “And when the Breaths were gathering firm” (Dickinson 6): This can symbolize that each person there is either tired of mourning or at peace with the narrator when passing. Next is the part where spirituality makes a play in the poem. After the last attack of death on the narrator; everyone now waits for something else to happen (Dickinson 7). In a spiritual sense, the soul of the person passing is usually gathered up in Heaven, hence why the King is mentioned at this time (Dickinson 7). “Be witnessed – in the Room –” (Dickinson 8): There are also people who have witnessed a death can feel a sense of peace or see a light hover over the body. This is how the narrator gives a sense of what happens during and after their death in different viewpoints.
Depending on how old the narrator is, they give us a sense that they have been preparing for their death. This is prominent in the third stanza; since Dickinson gives the reader a prepared emotion with the first line. “I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away / What portion of me be” (Dickinson 10-11): The narrator is materialistically prepared for their death that they have a will prepared for the family or friends. This can lead into the before portion of the literal death since the narrator is prepared for such a day. The line can also lead the reader into thinking that the narrator had an illness since they are ready for death.
Death is portrayed in a denotative meaning in the poem, “Before I could not Stop for death” though Dickinson puts an emphasis on individualism. With individualism in mind, the poem is a story of sorts about the negative parts of marriage in the time period for the independent women in that time period. One similarity of the poem beforehand is that each narrator is speaking from beyond the grave. In the first stanza, the narrator tells the reader how she is stopped from her busy life by whisked away by two people: one being death and the other being immortality. Dickinson gives us the image that Death engages the narrator first by interrupting her busy, independent lifestyle:
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held just Ourselves –
And Immortality (1-4).
The last two lines of the first stanza is also a hint that the couple is not alone. There is another person in the carriage. “Immortality” is seen as a guide for the narrator and death. Since, back when the poem was written, divorce was allowed, but very frowned upon; which can be interpreted that “immortality” leads into the quote “Till Death Do Us Part.”
In the fourth stanza, Dickinson’s narrator is not prepared to lose her independent lifestyle. For example, the reader can examine the seriousness of the engagement date in the second stanza due to how abruptness of the carriage ride. The emotional side of losing her life is seen since the narrator is not prepared for how cold the ride is and her attire is wrong: “The Dews drew quivering and chill –” (14). Since her clothing is wrong and is not protected from any elements; we can assume that she is not ready for marriage. The cold in this line can also lead the readers to interpret how the chill can be the depressing state of one knowingly and heading into their own demise.
In the fifth and sixth stanza, Dickinson gives the reader a better understanding to what is happening before and after the marriage. The fifth stanza has the line where Dickinson writes the narrator stating that, “We paused before the House that / Seemed to be a Swelling of the Ground” (17-18). This house is a representation of the narrator’s burial ground and where she will be residing for eternity in the after-life. The house can also be a representation of a bridal room and is waiting for the ultimate death which is marriage. We can also interpret that the second line means that there are no walls and only a single roof which is the representation of the opening or covering of said burial site. The sixth stanza’s first line has to do with when the carriage first approached her; it felt just like yesterday which means that it is a memory that has really stuck with the reader (Dickinson 21-22). So, this means that the narrator is reminiscing on the day she got whisked away? This must be true because this gives the readers a big clue on just how long she has been dead. The readers also get a bigger clue on how this is a memory, such as the line that she states she “surmised the Horses’ Heads” (Dickinson 23). The poem is left on a note that the marriage is going to continue on for forever. There are a lot of people who are afraid of commitment and end up having to say that marriage or a serious relationship can lead into the death of true self.
While death is a term with various meanings. This term can mean anything from reincarnation or the ultimate end of a person’s life. It all depends on how a religion or a person can interpret said term. The poet, Emily Dickinson gives the connotative and denotative meaning in the two poems, “I heard a Fly Buzz – when I died –” and “Because I could not stop for Death.” There is a statistic that states that “At Least a Third of All Women in the U.S. are Killed by Male Partners.” This is a study from the Huffington Post. Everyone can conclude that someone will experience both deaths that were written by Dickinson.