Brooke Zirker

Professor Lee

American Literature

20 March 2017

                                   

                                                            The Real Truth

Dickinson was a very interesting poet but was considered one of the many great American poets for her time. She lived with her parents almost her entire life and her only friends were her siblings. She spent a lot of time looking at cemeteries which may have influenced the theme of some of her poems. She wrote several poems but a lot of them were not good enough to be published at the time. She never actually titled any of her poems so they are referred to by the first line of the poem. Dickinson wrote some poems that had a positive outlook on everything but they were mostly about death. A lot of her poems dealt with themes such as sadness, depression, and death. Even though her poems weren’t about beauty and creation like Emerson liked but she wrote about the themes how they explained the truths of life which was also something that Emerson thought represented an American aesthetic.

In Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly Buzz - when I Died”, she is describing the moment and the events leading up to this “person” in the poem’s death. She starts off by describing the scene as quiet and still. She describes it in a way of making it sound beautiful, she says it was “like the stillness in the Air/ Between the Heaves of Storm” (Ln. 3-4). This is a big moment for this person and this is how it should be, calm and still. The person awaiting their death, they already signed away their belongings and the people in the room were awaiting the king's presence to take her off to heaven. This person went through the proper ritual (things someone should do before they die) when all of a sudden a gross, little fly has interrupted this beautiful moment. She describes this fly as “With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz- between the light - and me -” (14-15). The person in this poem thought they were completely ready for their “majestic” death when this fly came in and distracted them. The person was now focused on this annoying fly buzzing around their head. I think Dickinson is using this “annoying fly” to project uncertainty within this person. This fly got in between this person and the light. I think that the lights can be looked at in many different ways one being, knowledge and this certainty, to ultimately know for sure what's going to happen. Dickinson uses her themes to relate to her readers. In this poem, this person thought they were ready but a small part of them wasn’t ready. A lot of people could be going through the exact same thing. This is what Emerson was saying when he said poets should write about the truth. I think these truths don’t necessarily have to happy and optimistic. Instead they are about real issues that she and her readers might be dealing with. And in this poem she is saying everybody is a little uncertain at times and that is just a fact of life.

  Dickinson wrote another poem about death called “Because I could not Stop for Death” and instead of describing the moments before someone’s death, she describes the journey with “death” from life to after death.In this poem, Death is personified and picks her up with a carriage and takes her on a “date” leading her to her death. At first the women is too busy for this “gentlemen” and didn’t have time to get her affairs in order but it didn’t matter, she had to go. Death was ready for her but she wasn’t ready for it. In another one her poems “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” she discusses the idea that this eternal sleep is a part of life and something that we all must face. These “chambers” are our coffins and “sleeping” is our deaths. In both of these poems she brings up this idea that even if we aren’t ready for it, death is coming. In both of these poems she is being honest and blunt. Death might creep up on you and it's just something you have to accept. A lot of people might not be ready for it but like Dickinson illustrates in her poems, it's just a part of life and it is going to happen no matter what. These poems are depressing and not anything about beauty or creation like Emerson would seek but it is about the stages of life and the truths of life. Her imagery and truths are necessarily pretty but they are the truth. Emerson says a poet should be original and speak the truth, and this exactly what Dickinson is doing in her poems. She explains through depressing imagery and metaphors that this is the way that life works and that we are all going to die and we have to accept it.

A similar poem that was written by Dickinson called “It was not Death, for I stood up” talks about the reality of depression and what it is and how it affects her and everything in her life. She talks about how this feeling wasn’t death itself, but more of an emptiness inside or even a numb feeling (1675 Ln. 1-2). When she says “And yet, it tasted, like them all” she is explaining how her thoughts and emotions are affecting the other things in her life (Ln. 10). She explains how awful depression can be and how awful it really makes you feel. In another poem called “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,” Dickinson describes a person basically losing their mind. In this poem, they are falling out of touch with reality and going into a very bad state of mind (1673 Ln. 1-5). She uses the same word in her poem “It was not Death, for I stood up” to describe how this person is feeling, “numb”. Whether you’re depressed or actually losing your mind you aren’t complete, you have lost something and you feel numb. They both explore the idea of sadness, depression, emptiness, and what it feels like to lose your mind. There is drumming and beating and chaos, this sanity that she once had has been lost. These are not everyday topics that everyone writes about. Emerson liked to talk about beauty but he also like to talk about the truth of life. He talked about finding the finding meaning of life and the journey there. And I think Dickinson demonstrates this journey but shows that it’s not always perfect and pretty, that sometimes it’s ugly and it’s hard. In these poems she writes about the idea that not everyone is perfect and that lots of people deal with depression and that the world is chaotic and sometimes people lose their minds. But eventually you will get there. Her work is original and speaks about the truth of the world just like Emerson would have wanted.

Dickinson may not have been super optimistic and happy in all of her poems but she spoke of the truths in life. She described the moments leading up to death, depression, and how this world is incredibly chaotic and how not everything is going to be perfect all the time. The journey to find the meaning of life is not going to be easy, it can be very difficult. Emerson says that a poet speaks of truth and this is what Dickinson did. She was ultimately an amazing poet and a representative of an American aesthetic.

                                                           

Works Cited

Dickinson, Emily. “Because I could not Stop for Death”.. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.

Dickinson, Emily. “I felt a Funeral in Brain”. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.

Dickinson, Emily.I Heard a Fly Buzz - in my Brain”. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.

Dickinson, Emily. “It was not Death, for I Stood up”.. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.

Dickinson, Emily. “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers”. The Norton Anthology of

           American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.