Death as a theme in Dickinsons poems

Emily Dickinson has written many poems with the theme of death . She had several ideas about the nature of death , dying and loss . I will examine several of her poems to illustrate the presence of death as a theme and try to interpret what she was saying about it

When someone is nearing death , they think about their life up to that point . People who accomplished everything that they wanted to accomplish in life can die peacefully . Dickinson 's poetry suggests that a person who has not been successful has a painful reflection

of their lives as they are dying . A dying person considers the value of reaching goals , especially if they did not reach their goals over the course of their lifetime . When they start to die , they realize how important it is to accomplish things in life . She writes

As he defeated -- dying --

On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Burst agonized and clear (67

Another poem (712 ) begins Because I would not stop for death / He kindly stopped for me ' This one can be interpreted that we are so busy with our lives that when death comes we are forced to stop everything and reflect

Sometimes Dickinson writes about the grave . In her poem numbered 216 she describes time and seasons passing over Alabaster Chambers ' It seems clear that she is talking about caskets because she writes that she is talking about the place that the meek members of Resurrection are sleeping

Poem number 241 talks about the agony of death . She writes in this poem that the

look of agony is true ' and it can be interpreted that someone painfully dying is not something that is easily faked . The message is that dying is an honest experience , and people are pretentious in that state

Losing someone that you care about is a painful experience . Dickinson writes in her poem 258 that the experience gives us a Heavenly Hurt meaning that it isn 't a physical pain , but in inner spiritual pain that we can find no scar ' from . Poem 1078 is about cleaning up our lives after losing someone . It talks about trying to forget how much we loved the person we lost in to ease the pain of losing them

Dickinson also has a few poems about near death experiences . In I heard a fly buzz when I died (465 ) she writes

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 -

This stanza uses windows as a metaphor for the eyes . When she sees the light as her life slips away and then her eyes close and she can 't see Other poems suggest that she had experienced death for a moment but came back . It was not Death for I stood up ' was a poem that describes a near death experience using words like `night...